DD 202 Ch 16 (Patreon)

Chapter 16

“They have sushi!” Fayeth squealed, opening the menu at the restaurant that we had picked.

It was sort of a jack-of-all trades sort of place. This deep in the dungeon, there weren’t many restaurants and besides the few classic bars. This place just had a smattering of random ethnic dishes in no particular combination.

“The raw fish?” Felin stared blankly at the menu. She seemed a little overwhelmed.

“They have beef wellington. You might like that.” I offered to make her decision easier.

“Oh.” Fayeth spotted that on the menu. “I’ve wanted to try cooking that. Can someone order it and let me look at it?”

“Does it have cream?” Felin asked, looking through the menu.

It was amusing to watch the two non-humans work through the menu. “What about you?” I asked the other two.

“The wellington, for sure.” Des said loud enough to satisfy Fayeth.

Charlotte was instead staring at the desert card that had been on the table. “We eat delicious meat every day. When was the last time we had cake?”

I chuckled. “Aren’t you already sweet enough?”

Charlotte blushed heavily, but the corners of her mouth twisted up. “Think I’m getting the triple chocolate delight. Today’s a day off and I won’t hold back!” She smacked the menu down on the table with a sort of defiance.

“Yeah!” Felin let out a growl.

“Can you all keep it down?” The table next to us huffed. “Food tastes better in silence so that you can savor it.”

I raised an eyebrow and leaned back in my chair as I looked the group over.

The one word that came to me as I looked them over was ‘awkward’. Three of them had large glasses that made their eyes gigantic. One had to be almost seven feet tall but was nothing but skin and bones. The other was one of the rare fat adventurers.

“Look, Ken. It’s Tuskies!”

“Trusk.” Fayeth corrected her. “The college on the logo is Trusk.”

The group shifted as if suddenly noticing the Nekorian and Elf. The tall man shot to his feet. “A mixed group?!” His voice cracked.

Des threw her Haylon jacket over the edge of our table for them to see. “Haylon is hosting an elven ambassador. The cat is just attached to my man.”

“I am.” Felin nodded rapidly. “Soon, I’m going to wear them down and join their pride.”

All three of the glasses wearers pushed at the nose of their glasses in sync and light flashed off of them. “Ah. That makes him the famed Ken Nagato. The only man to have ever been accepted into Haylon and the current protege of Mistress Crimson.”

“It’s like 893271 come to life!” Another of the adventurers took a deep breath like they were struggling to breathe.

“No, it’s even better. Have you read 74 wives?” The girl with glasses asked.

“Rumors are that it’s based on real life events.” The fat girl’s eyes slid to me with a hunger that made me very uncomfortable.

“Who’s being loud now?” Felin’s ears twitched as she crossed her arms and stared down the group.

“I apologize for their outbursts.” The tall lanky one did an overly formal bow. “They like to read with their meals and can be cranky if someone disturbs them. We don’t have much time before…” He trailed off as the door was thrown open and a gaggle of nerds swept into the place.

I eyed the group, my eyes snapping to one that stuck out.

The woman was like a queen of the nerds. Radiant beauty with blonde hair that seemed to ripple with a breeze that only affected her. She wore loose white robes that somehow were loose, yet pressed into each and every one of her curves.

Her eyes combed over the crowd, stopping at our table and in particular Des’ jacket which was still proudly displaying Haylon’s logo.

The woman swept through the restaurant like she owned the place.

The nerds at the table were like her worshipers. “Class President! We are not worthy!” One of the bespeckled men threw themselves down on the ground.

Everyone ignored the gesture like it was a normal occurrence.

The Class President stopped at our table and spun with a flourish that made her hair fly through the air. “Oh my gosh. Is that a Nekorian?!” She squealed and giggled. “I didn’t know there was a Nekorian at Haylon.”

Felin puffed herself up and crossed her arms under her chest. “I’m a new addition. You see I am a Neko—“

“She’s Felin from 74 wives.” The glasses girl at the table behind the Class President called out.

The Queen of the Nerds had a bright flash in her eyes and then they stuck to me. “Ken Nagato, Desmonda Renard, Charlotte DuVell, Fayeth Lyntean! It’s all of them! It’s real!”

“Now look it’s wildly—“

“Pretty much.” Des touched the woman’s hand. “We are just as awesome as we are in the story. One of our classmates writes it though, and they go a smidge overboard with the sex.”

The Nerd Queen was panting. “I’m Marin.” She held out her hand to me.

I touched it only for her second hand to clasp it as she shook it wildly.

“It’s truly an honor to meet you. I was going to dress up as one of the 74 when I go to my next convention! Personally, I think Charlotte is my favorite but that might be Bun-bun rubbing off on her. Then again, it’s building up such that you might take Penny next and I’m so down to do a cool frost knight outfit.”

I blinked, unsure of what to say, which only made her continue to babble on.

“Oh! Or I could be Ken, but a sexy Ken.”

“Anything you wear, my queen, would be like a divine right to lay my eyes upon it.” The man from the table next to us was still pressing his face to the floor.

“Choices, choices.” Marin did a little dance with her hands up by her face.

“You could always join the 74, at least for a little while, and then cosplay as yourself.” Des offered, and I wanted to sink into the ground.

I reached over and pinched the woman who only had thoughts of expanding my harem.

She didn’t even flinch, keeping a big smile plastered on her face as Marin’s smile steadily grew.

“Oh my gosh! I could cosplay myself. You know, I heard that Tonikawa studios were in talks about an anime adaption. If I’m to be a popular character I have to really shine and get in there early.” Marin was actually considering what Des had said.

“You could be an arc’s antagonist. You just need to be beautiful and really go at it. I know! Why don’t you make a bet with Ken? He’s going to win the raid competition. So if you bet yourself, then when he wins there would be lots of speculation of what happens off screen.” Des winked.

“M-m-m-mys-s-self?” Marin suddenly started stuttering. “As in s-ss-sex?”

What the fuck was wrong with these people? I rubbed my face.

“Not you. Your character.” Des tried a new angle.

Marin nodded along, quickly regaining herself. “My character. Yes, very sexy, very desirable. No. I cannot be the one to issue such a ridiculous reward, otherwise what do I have to win?” She struck a pose.

Felin blinked owlishly and turned to me. “Are all humans like this?”

“No. Not even close.” I sighed.

“Ken Nagato! I challenge you!” Marin stuck a finger in my face while she covered her mouth and laughed with the other.

“Oh no. Whatever shall I do?” I said with absolutely zero enthusiasm.

“When I win the college raid competition, you’ll become my pet!” She was far too animated.

I glanced at Des. “Are we doing this again? Didn’t I just make a big bet with Prince Albar?”

“Wait, you met Albar?” Marin asked. “He’s a jerk. Treats women like objects. So I introduced him to the latest eroge game about obtaining your perfect nubile slave girl. He spent like five minutes with me and now he just runs away from me.” She shook her head, completely mystified.

“I cannot imagine why.” I deadpanned.

“Anyway, as compensation if you win, I’ll become your doll to dress up and play with as you see fit.” Marin puffed out her cheeks.

“Deal.” Des reached up and shook her hand. “I’m going to really enjoy you two going at it… in the raid competition, that is.”

Marin’s face blushed heavily again with Des’ double meaning. “I-I-I won’t lose!” She found her footing. “But Haylon finally showed up to the safe zone? You’re the last class to show up.”

“We’ll be leaving soon too. Crimson has us out on a dead branch of the dungeon farming an event.” I didn’t see any reason to hold back the information.

Talking about the dungeon and Marin became confident and rather normal. “That makes a lot of sense. Competition here is fierce with all three colleges. Thankfully the 30th floor is huge. We’ve been focusing out there on farming, because fighting the bosses is getting boring. Maybe a few will go do the bosses, but most of us don’t care about loot.”

“You don’t care about loot?” Fayeth asked.

“Nope. A good half of our class are summoners. We just plow through the monsters with summons.” She explained.

My mind went to the president of the UG who summoned an army of angels and the brief showing he’d put on during the naga attack. It had shown he was as strong as a party of adventurers on his own.

“What do you summon?” Felin asked.

“A variety of things.” Marin tapped at her lips. “But if I were to be famous for something, it would be dragons.”

I couldn’t help reappraising her. Dragons, even if they were small, were nothing to scoff at. They were a rather famous monster type for good reason.

“She’s the best summoner the world has ever seen!” Several of the Trusk students started to chant for their president who turned away from us to focus on calming them down.

The waiter used that moment to slip in and get our orders.

I ended up just picking something at random, because I’d forgotten what I wanted during the conversation with Marin. She had a particular way of sweeping aside the conversation.

Before she could get a handle on her class and get them all to sit down, a steady beat vibrated the table.

Like a marching line, in perfect step, a crowd in Pendulum’s dark red and gold marched into the restaurant.

Machen was leading the group. He’d filled out and his mohawk was down, giving him a little goth vibe with half his head shaved and long hair going down the other side. “Ken!” He broke the formation as they got to a table.

“Hi Machen. Did I see that you were leading the group?”

He chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head. Despite the change in appearances, he was still the awkward kid I remembered. “Something like that. We had a big challenge ceremony to determine our class leader and… well… one of them hurt my girl and I lost it. Woke up an hour later and I’d crushed the rest of the challengers in my class.”

I laughed. I could just picture that moment. Leave it to a berserker to accidentally get class leader.

“So, this is a meeting of class leaders?” Marin recovered. “We just need the Stupid Prince.”

“I see you’ve met the Smut Game Queen here.” Machen gestured at Marin.

“That’s not my name. I’m Marin, and you listened with rapt attention as I explained the joys of Bale Beach collector's edition. The special outfits you can put on those ladies…” Marin drooled a little. “So worth the extra twenty bucks.” Truly deserving of being the Nerd Queen.

Machen raised an eyebrow at me as if to say ‘see what I’m dealing with here?’

I nodded back at him trying to say ‘You have my sympathy, listening to her for that long must have been a true test of your patience, but good training for your berserk.’

Machen closed his eyes and nodded slowly. “So are you in charge of your class?”

“Nope. Are you kidding me? I passed that buck onto someone who wanted it. Candice is our class president. She’s… well you’ll recognize her if you see her. Super straight laced blonde with long hair.”

“Oh, Candice.” Marin came out of her daydreaming about some video game. “In chapter forty-eight when you broke her and turned her into your cock sleeves was epic.” She said that with a completely straight face.

Machen looked at me ‘what is she talking about’

‘I wish I didn’t know, sadly my mind has been tainted with such knowledge’ I lamented back.

Machen patted my shoulder consolingly.

“Oh. Then when he makes her beg and be first in the line up on chapter fifty-three.” One of the three at the table next to us broke into the conversation and offered a chef’s kiss.

“Right. Well. We were going to eat. I’m sure you have things to do with your classes. We are just in for the day, selling shit and going shopping. Afterwards we’ll be out of your hair.” I smiled at Marin.

“Are you going to be back for the DPS tests?” Machen asked.

I tilted my head in confusion.

“Ah. You probably don’t know. No one has been able to figure out where you’ve been.” Machen scratched his cheek.

“They’ve been getting diabolical training from Crimson in a secret dark branch of the dungeon. She’s locked them all up and thrown away the key forcing them to break their minds and souls as she turns Ken into a living weapon!” Marin quickly babbled.

I glanced at Des.

“Blame Penny.” She shrugged. “Besides, it’s not really wrong.” The rest of the ladies at my table were talking softly to each other, sipping colorful drinks through straws. Though, Felin was licking her lips, with a faint white film inside her glass that she was eying.

None of them seemed remotely bothered by Marin’s description.

“Fine. Though it’s just harsh training. So, what’s the DPS test?” I asked.

“Ah. Right.” Machen cleared his throat. “In two weeks they are setting up a bunch of damage meters and some tanks and healers to basically hold some big tank and spank type boss. They will let the students go at it and get their mock damage numbers. There’s already some betting going on, anticipating the outcomes.”

“Any bets on me?” I asked.

“Eh.” Machen scratched his cheek. “No. The Prince, myself and Marin have most of the bets. I think there were a few for Des behind you.”

I deadpanned, before a smile split my face. This was a perfect use of all the money I’d gotten recently. Why not roll it into something bigger? “Where can I go to place some bets?”

“Here, in your CID.” Machen reached over and tapped on mine to open a UG page and swipe down and clicked another few links with practiced ease.

There was a long list of names.

Himself, Marin, and Prince Albar were at the top.

Des leaned over and let out a whistle. “That’s a lot of money riding on them.”

“Yeah. It’s gotten a lot of popularity. They are talking about letting a TV station down here for the DPS tests. Then, we might have a crew follow us in during our boss attempts. That’s being contested by Barret though. He doesn’t want our tactics to spill out. He’s only saying he’ll accept a delay.” Machen sounded awkward with the potential TV coverage, but continued.

I was swiping down, looking through the betting odds. “I have no idea what I’m looking at.”

“The ones with pluses, which is the whole page now, are not favored to win. Plus two hundred is double your winnings.” Machen explained.

“So…” I finally found my name. “Plus seven forty…” I was near the bottom of the list. “That means seven point four times my bet?”

“Yeah. Sorry man. I know it stings a little to be that low.”

Rather than be down, I gave him a broad grin. “No! This is fantastic.”

Des and Charlotte were joining me in putting large bets on me.

“You guys are that confident?” Marin asked. “74 wives doesn’t get much into the combat aspect of the story.”

“Marin’s pretty fucking tough. I don’t know if you want to place too big of a bet against her.” Machen looked over my shoulder.

I shook my head. “Sorry man. I’m sure both of you are tough as nails, but if nothing else, I’m doing this to encourage myself.”

Des chuckled darkly as she kept adding zeros to the amount.

I’m sure the two of them were tough, but they had no idea what they were up against with [Liminal Speed] on my side.

“Then I wish you luck man. We’ll catch up when you get back? There’s a Pendulum building on the north side of the safe zone. Just come ask for me.” He held out his fist, and I couldn’t help but marvel at how veiny his hands were. Then again, I’d been told women loved that look.

“Sure. I’ll do that.” Machen was still my friend, even if we’d gone different routes. Any jealousy I’d harbored initially at him going to my dream college because of his class were long gone.

After all, then I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunities that I had and they were some pretty sweet opportunities.

“Ooh. Maybe there can be some boy love in 74 wives!” Marin’s eyes had stars in them.

I sighed. “Marin, don’t you have a class to manage? Our food looks like it’s coming.”

“Oh right.” She stuck her tongue out and skipped away.

I rubbed my forehead. There were some people with quite a bit of character across the other schools. And soon I would see what they could do in the dungeon.

AN - No chapters again this weekend. Good news though, I've gotten more words out this week than last. So, improvement. Feel like the story is going in a fun way.