[DCI] Chapter 49 - A Tough Case (Patreon)

Drawing back from Aisha’s lips, I gave her figure a brief glance over. “You all good?”

She smirked at me. “Why don’t you check yourself?”

I chuckled and stepped away. “Looks like you are in perfect condition. Anyone is hurt or injured?”

Everyone checked themselves as I turned around. Personally, I had a few minor cuts and bruises on my arms and shoulders but there was nothing serious that could pose a threat to my health or life. Out of all of us, Ashmel and Lulu had taken the brunt of the skeletal assault and it showed on their bodies and protective gear. The Assassin guy was slightly more roughed up than the small Shadowmancer girl.

“I barely took part in this fight so I am alright.” Levia made a polite nod my way and I responded with the same.

“I’ll need to take care of a few bruises but overall I’m more or less unscathed,” Ashmel replied.

“Same here. I spent most of the time chasing after those annoying ghosts so the other Skeletons barely reached me.” Lulu grinned at us as her thin tail smacked the air like a whip. “But, enough about that. You were amazing!”

“Who? Me?” I looked around but she was still directing her bright smile at me.

“Of course! I didn’t expect much from a human but you greatly exceeded my expectations!” She bounced on her feet closer to me, glancing up at my face. “You fought amazingly well against many Skeletons with just your mace and the flying handaxe! And your cooperation with the others was so perfect too! I might actually need to reevaluate my stance on your kind, all thanks to you!”

The pink imp woman trotted around me while clearly examining me from all angles. Her eyes darted from place to place, detail to detail, as a charming smile never left her pouty lips. She finally stopped in front of me again and rocked on the soles of her feet, joining her hands behind her back.

“Were Commanders always this great? Are you really one?” Lulu leaned in to peer deeper into my eyes.

But, she didn’t get to shorten the distance between our faces too much as Aisha grabbed her by the collar and lifted the petite girl up, forcing a surprised squeal out of our love imp friend. My much taller and stronger mate pulled the shorter girl away a bit before letting go of her armor.

With the ground returning under her feet, Lulu frantically waved her arms around to catch balance before furrowing her brows at the drakan lady.

“That was rude.” She furrowed her brows.

“Just as you sucking up to someone right in front of their mate,” Aisha replied.

“Oh, are you two…?” Lulu looked between the two of us.

My feisty companion snorted to the side. “Wasn’t that obvious after the earlier part?”

“Well, that was just a kiss, and maybe it was necessary to stop you from turning all of us into sliced jerky? How would we be able to know that?” Lulu set her palms on her hips. “Besides, I don’t mind. It’s not like I’m looking for something serious.”

“Unfortunately for you, he does mind, so don’t try to get too close.” Aisha squinted at her, emphasizing her beautiful, crimson, vertical pupils in the process.

For a moment, it felt like they would continue that unexpected scuffle, but Lulu just giggled and spun around. “Fine. I guess humans are still humans.”

She set her hands behind her head and acted as if she wasn’t paying attention to me anymore, but I’m pretty sure that everyone was still able to catch her sneaking a peek at me as her gaze roamed my figure.

“Returning to our current predicament, what now?” Ashmel asked, bringing our focus back to the issue at hand.

“You said that this pylon was some kind of a relay, right? There won’t be more of them coming here, yeah?” I glanced at Levia.

“That is correct.” Our quiet Witch nodded faintly. “Although, I cannot guarantee that no monsters will arrive at this place. There might be individuals or groups that do not require a constant connection to the source of this contamination to function.”

“So, I guess there are more spots with these around the Dungeon.” I sighed.

“That is also most likely correct.” She repeated the motion again. “I have no doubt that those devices are what controls the undead on this level. I cannot be sure about the higher or lower floors.”

“But, no matter what, it’s certain that they are connected to your assignment, no?” Aisha raised a brow at her.

“I agree,” Ashmel supported her claim.

“It is very likely as you say.” Levia nodded at them for the third time.

“Then we need to take them down. It will be much safer to move through those stone corridors without the monsters regenerating or being created by those crystals,” Lulu suggested.

“I don’t know about you, but this is our first real clue so following this lead might net us some more hints about the actual situation of this Dungeon,” I said, moving my gaze over the two Defenders. “It will be best if we split up and look around in different directions. We can cover more ground that way and make good use of the available time.”

“How are we going to let each other know about our findings? Should we go back to our entrances together to memorize the location?” Lulu tilted her head at me.

“Since this chamber and the area around it are now relatively safe, we can use it as our meeting point,” I suggested and saw both my companions nod. “To give ourselves some time, we can agree to gather here in three days or something like that. And let the other guy know about this when we stumble on him.”

“I can get behind that. It will be easier for me to move around alone,” the Assassin replied, pulling his face mask up a little bit.

“I would rather hang around you guys more but you aren’t wrong.” The energetic Shadowmancer pouted. “I guess I’ll have to work hard until we meet again. If I manage to find more pylons than everyone else, will I earn the right to examine you?”

“I’ll consider that.” I chuckled wryly at the suggestive gaze she gave me, watching Lulu pump her fist victoriously. “Now, what about the spoils of war? It’s not like there’s a lot but at least a few nuclei should have survived, including those inside the enemies that arrived late. Plus, there’s the pillar. Is it worth anything, Levia?”

“It is both already attuned to a certain spell and possibly damaged past the point of repair. I do not think that it has a significant value in its current state but I might be wrong,” the wise Witch answered.

“I think so too. It didn’t interest me anyway.” Ashmel regarded the destroyed pylon with a brief glance. “I’ll collect some intact nuclei from the lesser monsters for my share. Too bad we haven’t figured out the role of the crystal before the Death Knights died for good.”

“Same here. Small fries like these are just spare change.” Lulu scrunched her nose while looking around at the remains of the battle. “I call dibs on the first pick from the loot after the final encounter, though. I got a pretty useful trinket the last time.”

“Every single demand of yours just keeps getting more outrageous.” Aisha crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m afraid that you won’t be able to use your charm, cuteness, and neither your holes to get everyone to spoil you rotten.”

“You are just jealous that I’m more desirable than some hulking draconic she-man whose tits are nothing but muscle.” Lulu stuck her tongue out at her. “I bet it feels like humping a wall for him when he takes you from behind with that rock-hard ass of yours.”

“Funny thing coming from someone whose chest is flatter than an anvil of a pedantic dwarven artisan. I bet he wouldn’t be able to suck on your tits even sideways,” Aisha threw back at the petite girl.

“Alright, alright, I think that’s enough.” I stepped between the two before things heated up even more. “We are still all a little bit juiced up after the recent battle and might say or do what we could regret in the future. Let’s collect our dues and return home to take a well-deserved break.”

Aisha and Lulu glared at each other for a moment longer and the smaller girl humphed before walking away with her head and chest held high. While the latter part wasn’t exactly as small as my fierce lover had pointed out, Lulu was clearly on the thinner side in that region, knowing that more than well, and most likely why she tried to emphasize her bust as much as she could while heading off into the distance.

I shared a nod with Ashmel and we got to the menial task of collecting nuclei. My party remained in the chamber the longest, picking up every natural core we could, while Lulu stopped caring after just about fifteen minutes, followed by Ashmel, who lasted half an hour. We took about an hour to get everything that was valuable out of the room, including the special white moss that Levia had noticed before the fight and that Aisha had no intention of leaving behind.

We stared at the broken crystal for a good five minutes before Aisha just hoisted the broken-off piece over her shoulder, saying that no one could know when that thing might come useful, and we headed back home. After we put some distance between us and the chamber with the pylon, Aisha made a few steps ahead of us and turned around to face me.

“What do you think about her?” she asked.

“Lulu?” I raised a brow at her.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“Well, I don’t know. We just met, and as you said, I already have you, so…”

“Not like that.” Aisha smirked. “As the potential killer.”

“Ah.” A wry chuckle escaped my lips. “It’s also hard to say. She gives off very eccentric and friendly vibes but who knows if that isn’t a mask. They always say that men are the most vulnerable with their pants down.”

“I like that one.” She snickered. “There might be more to her than it meets the eye. She wasn’t examining just your assets when she was prowling around you like a cat in heat.”

“It looks like you noticed too,” Levia joined in and we both glanced at our witchy friend. “I have to agree that the female imp has been observing you closely the entire time, even when she was fulfilling the task you gave her. The desire to copulate with you might not have been the only reason for her behavior.”

“She could have been studying you and your gear before figuring out how to take you down with complete certainty,” Aisha suggested. “Knowing that you are a Commander, she should be aware that hurting or killing you first will heavily affect us, your companions. I think jumping on your dick is just an excuse.”

“So that’s why you were so hostile to her after the fight.” I stroked my chin.

My beautiful drakan mate shot me a sly grin. “What if I just didn’t like seeing some half-sized slut bouncing around you and treating you like some exotic specimen to have a taste of?”

I grinned back at her and raised my pace to catch up, bringing my face near hers. “Then I would be very happy to hear that. I wasn’t sure if you could even get jealous of me but now I am certain.”

Aisha snorted and pecked my lips. “Don’t think too highly of yourself, human.”

“I thought you wanted me to be bolder.” I kept our faces close, peering into her mesmerizing eyes with our lips barely not touching each other.

After she focused on my eyes too hard and stumbled on some random piece of stone, I chuckled and stepped back. Then, I remembered that we weren’t alone and Levia was still with us. Realizing what kind of a show I’d given her, I began getting a little hot. I was starting to become too familiar with her presence after the few days we’d spent together.

Thankfully, our new friend remained as calm and collected as she always was and didn’t show any signs of feeling awkward or displeased by my actions. I couldn’t shake off the worry that she was just not showing it openly, though. Levia didn’t exactly belong to the more expressive half of people.

“Getting back on track, Lulu does fit a few of the circumstances behind the murder attempt. She has a dagger by her waist and can easily move through the shadows. Escaping a room full of normal monsters is nothing for her, just as sneaking up on someone should be too,” I continued. “At the same time, we don’t know if what he said happened the way he described it for real either. Honestly, everyone is suspicious to some extent, or it’s just me looking into it way too deeply.”

For the rest of our trip back home, we discussed the three Defenders, the Priest’s story, and shared our own insights and opinions. Out of the two assassin-like people, Ashmel seemed to hold himself confidently and hadn’t shown any too weird actions and moves like Lulu had. Plus, he had helped us during our first encounter.

We just had to think about it a little bit more.

Soon, Rose brought us back to the camouflaged entrance to my apartment and we slipped inside, of course checking the surroundings first to make sure that nothing jumped at us with a surprise greeting the next time we opened the door. After we threw our loot into the storage and started changing, I took a peek at my phone.

“Ah, shit. Zeke called. It must have happened mid-fight so we heard no tune and I missed the vibrations,” I said with a sigh.

“Somehow, the thought of our team of five slaying angry Skeletons to the music set as your ringtone makes it so hilarious.” Aisha laughed softly while shaking her head.

“Ringtone?” Levia turned her calm face to us.

“The chime that Lucas’ communication device emits when someone tries to request a conversation with him is called a ringtone,” my quite well-versed in the matters of this realm mate explained.

As the girls entered a discussion about the phone and music people used for their ringtones, I stepped away and sent Zeke a text apologizing for missing his call and letting him know to get in touch whenever he had a free moment next. Not even a minute passed before my phone rang and I received the incoming call.

“Yo!” Zeke happily greeted me.

“Sup. Looks like you have time on your hands. Or just being lazy.” I chuckled at his enthusiastic tone.

“I’m just done with most shit for the day. I have some news about that little project of ours and decided to drop by but no one answered the door so I shot you a call, which didn’t go through either,” he explained.

“Sorry. Everyone was out for a moment and I just noticed that I left my phone on mute.” I came up with a quick excuse.

“No worries man. Are you free now or are you working?”

“More or less free,” I replied. “Are you really going to haul your ass here again after kissing the doorknob?”

“I’m in the cafe on the other side of the street. Will be up there in a min.”

“Gods, you never left? That call was over an hour ago.” I rubbed my eyes.

He chuckled and I caught the noise of a wooden chair scraping over ceramic tiles. “I don’t have any other plans for the rest of the day and I really wanted to talk about it.”

“Right, right. Fair warning, we just came back from a cardio break so we are all sweaty and disheveled. Drop by whenever if that doesn’t bother you.”

“Not an issue. See you in a sec.”

Zeke hung up and I returned from the kitchen complex back to the open bedroom, finding Aisha and Levia by the PC. The latter had my headphones on while the former was picking a bunch of tunes I had downloaded onto my hard drive and bundled into albums. One of those tracks was currently my ringtone and I had all of them put in my phone’s storage too since those were my favorite pieces I had collected over the years.

I came closer to let them know about the upcoming meeting and Aisha went to catch a quick shower, leaving Levia alone with my music. The silent Witch was staring at the displayed player with a running music visualizer, faintly bobbing her head with barely noticeable movements.

Taking a peek at the currently playing track revealed an opening theme from one of the action animes I had watched back in the past, which was about a few thousand people stuck in a fantasy death game where the device used to play it fried their brains when their avatars lost all the health points.

All the openings in that series were complete bangers. Especially the one from the first season.

I left Levia in the hands of the awesome OSTs, going to finish changing. Soon, the doorbell rang and she didn’t even notice, still completely consumed by the enthralling sounds coming out of my audiophile-tier headphones. Opening the door, I found Zeke on the other side with a big smile on his face.

“Good day for a jog, eh? I can’t say that I like moving that much, even though I might not look the part.” He chuckled.

“You seem to be in high spirits today.” I smiled and let him in.

“Man, I just couldn’t wait to talk to you!” He spun around while gesturing a lot. “That thing you left me? Dude, I have no idea who makes these but the system that thing runs on is a real piece of something.”

“Is it giving you trouble?” I gestured at him to follow me to the kitchen and grabbed two glasses from the drier.

“Nah, the opposite. Well, to some extent. But later about that.” He shook his head with a big grin. “That OS is like all the best parts and features taken from the currently available giants and merged together. The code is true poetry. It takes a moment to understand the message but it just flows.”

“I take that’s a good thing?” I passed him some orange juice, knowing that we both enjoyed the same brand.

“The best!” He gulped the entire thing down in one go. “That little watch of yours has an unheard-of number of sensors and features! I have no idea what some of them are for but I just ignored these since that thing is hella protected. If whoever made this thing doesn’t want me to mess with any part of their device, I don’t even have a chance to try.”

“What about those that you recognize?” I asked, leaning onto the counter with my back.

“It’s a piece of cake to access them and read or write commands.” He snapped his fingers at me. “And that means we can work out that map idea of yours. I already prepared a makeshift build for the watch, and for the phone, assuming it runs on the same thing. I wanted to run it with you to test if I can do both at the same time.”

“Damn. That was fast. I know that this isn’t something grand and that it’s most likely an early prototype but I don’t remember anyone crunching an app like that since my days at the university and writing the entire final assignment in a night.” I shook my head.

“Good times.” Zeke laughed openly. “That’s usually the last time over half of the people try as hard at their apps. The employers rarely pay so much attention to the products we develop for them so the money flows alongside half-assed coding.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Well, we can try your masterpiece out. My friend shouldn’t mind letting us to the PC so that you can properly install the build. I still have all the software and configs from my previous job so you are free to use them.”

“Perfect. I won’t need to set up a fresh compiler then. Let’s go.” He rubbed his hands together with a wide grin.

Just as we stepped back into the short hallway in front of the entrance, the door to the bathroom opened and Aisha walked out of it with a few clouds of steam escaping the heated environment. While she, fortunately, had her sports briefs on, only the small towel hung around her neck, barely covering her chest on both sides. Waving at us with a warm smile, she continued towards the bedroom, showing her muscular back and legs to us in their full glory.

I sighed as Zeke’s eyes practically popped out from getting so wide. She had clearly waited for us to finish before making her entrance. He looked at me with confusion and disbelief but I could only spread my arms and shake my head back at him. Resting a hand on his shoulder, I brought him to the PC while Aisha started dressing herself behind our backs. I saw how much he struggled not to turn around out of respect for her and the rest of us.

Levia relinquished control of my computer without making a fuss and moved closer to the bed while disrobing herself down to her underwear. She grabbed a towel before heading to the bathroom next. Since we had followed her with our gazes for a bit, we witnessed the entire thing together as the both of us were taken by surprise in the middle of her trip and continued to gape at the slim lady parading through my apartment.

“Hey,” Zeke leaned closer to my ear and whispered. “Do you maybe want to tell me something?”

“What?” I whispered back, furrowing my brows at him.

He looked between me and Aisha further in the room. “Are you gay?”

I snorted and smacked the back of his head. “Enough with your jokes. Get to work.”

Zeke chuckled and sat down in my chair, booting up the necessary software.

His guess wasn’t that outrageous considering the scenes we had witnessed, but I wasn’t the only guy in this room at the moment. I really needed to introduce some discipline into this house before things got out of hand due to Aisha’s teases and Levia’s unintentional participation in them.