DD 202 Ch 17 (Patreon)

Chapter 17

Charlotte swung our hands back and forth with a big smile on her face. The moment was only marred by Bun-bun’s snoring. The rabbit was tuckered out from the excitement of the restraunt. “Thanks for taking the time to go on a walk with me.”

I lifted her hand to kiss the back of it. “My pleasure. Too often the others demand my attention. Happy to spend more personal time with my cute healer.”

We were away from the city in the safe zone, walking along the edges through the grassy fields.

She blushed deeply and had trouble meeting my eyes. “I’m glad you think of me.”

I rubbed her hand and smiled when she looked back up. “Charlotte, my tender healer, I love you and you have nothing to worry about. Unless you are worrying about something in specific?”

She paused and shook her head.

“Charlotte?” I pushed her with a firm tome.

“It’s just… with Harley leaving, I wonder if you’ll rotate any more of us out?” She fidgeted, her hand playing with the fabric on her beautiful red summer dress.

I grabbed her chin and tilted up her face, forcing her to look me in the eyes. “If you want to leave, that’s fine. But know that I’ll never chase you out.” I smirked. “Des would kill me, are you kidding me? She’d blue balls me into eternity if I took away her cute and kind healer toy.”

Charlotte chuckled. “She is rather fond of sharing me between the two of you.”

“That would be an understatement.” I shrugged. “Candidly, I think she just likes to watch you squirm.” Taking Charlotte’s hand more firmly, I pulled her down to lay on the field.

She let out a squeak. Her exclamation was followed by one from Bun-bun as she fell on top of me and Bun-bun was successfully dislodged, bouncing on the ground a few feet away.

The lazy rabbit looked up and let out a grunt of discontent, but he didn’t have it in him to come back over and laid down in the grass.

“You know, the grass here isn’t itchy.” Charlotte said, rolling off of me and laying on her side pressed up against me.

“The dungeon would probably eat pollen like it would dust.” I answered as I thought through the concept. “Besides, this grass isn’t even real. If we took it out of the dungeon it wouldn’t be made up of living cells, but rather dead blocks of cell walls and green pigment.” I flicked a blade of grass.

“Even the drops. You can’t plant most of the things, even if they are berries or whatnot.” Charlotte said. “You can melt down the metal though. How are your shipments to the elves going?”

“Everything is on track. Crimson wanted some guild contribution points and went a little overboard.” I shook my head.

“She’s just making excuses. Crimson might train you like she’s trying to kill you, but that's because she wants to spend more time with you.” Charlotte cuddled closer and put her head on my shoulder.

I stared up at the light blue ceiling of the safe zone with the giant crystal in the center acting like the sun.

The sky was just missing clouds passing by overhead to complete the illusion.

“I don’t mind it. She wants me to catch up to her. Crimson is excited about it. Think about it. She’s been up alone on her own in adventuring for so long. That is why she gets along with Neldra so well.”

“They get along?!” Charlotte frowned.

I laughed. “Yes. Crimson doesn’t do ‘friend’ so much as ‘rival’. Look at her and Heather. But back to the point. She’s pushing me because she sees the chance to have someone else up there.” I shook my head. “Here I am talking about another woman while spending time with you. Just, suffice to say, I’m also dedicated to bringing the rest of you up with me.” I kissed her.

Charlotte blushed again. “I don’t mind.”

“I do.” I shot back. “So, how’s the family? Is your father still trying to show his sword off to everyone he meets?”

Charlotte choked on a laugh. “No. He’s being kept busy. The mothers and him set out for a deep dungeon dive as soon as they sent me back to Haylon. They are joining a push for 60’s.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Ah. The Renards, My father’s guild, and a handful of the other top parties are being encouraged to push to the 60th floor safe zone. They all chipped in on a big bet and the UG is promising to make a big fanfair if they can beat the level.” Charlotte shrugged. “So everyone down there with him has seen his sword plenty.”

I snickered at the double meaning.

Charlotte’s eyes crossed as she realized what she said and burst out laughing.

Watching this beautiful woman laugh and smile warmed me all the way to my core. It was moments like this that somehow made me keep my sanity among slaughtering monsters all day and training with weights that would break a normal person’s body several times over.

She came down from her laughter and pulled close, giving me a fluttering light kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Pulling her closer, savoring a moment along with the quiet druid.

We made out in the grass, our own private area, talking about the future and dreaming of what we wanted out of life.

***

“Cream!” Felin pounced into the grocery store. “Where’s the cream?!” She asked loudly to the first person she spotted.

“Ignore her.” Des gently pushed Felin deeper into the store. Sometimes it was nice to actually shop in a physical store and not just on a CID.

“She’s new around here.” Fayeth smiled at the poor adventurer that Felin had accosted.

Said adventurer did a double take at the group of mixed races, his mouth hanging open.

“Come on. We’ll go through the meat area first.” Fayeth pushed Felin forward.

“The cream second?”

“No. It’s on the other end of the store.” Fayeth clicked her tongue. “Come on. We’ll get you to eat something besides meat and cream yet.”

“She eats potato chips.” Des added unhelpfully.

“Crimson eats them. They must be fuel for powerful hunters.” Felin nodded. “Though, they are very greasy.”

Des snickered and stopped at the wine section, pulling a few into her CID. “None of the bars ever have wine; it’s all beer down there.”

“Beer keeps better.” Fayeth answered without missing a beat.

Rather than be like Des, who was just shoving arm loads of wine into her CID, Fayeth was carefully picking through the wine for ones that matched her vision of cooking.

Felin glanced between their two styles before slowly backing up and scanning the aisles, skipping past the fruits and vegetables and ducking into the first one with a good scent.

She let her nose guide her as she passed by brightly colored boxes to food that was so cheap it wasn’t even in a box, instead bright plastic bags.

Glancing down the way she came, she saw no sign of her minders.

She glanced back down at her find. The bag was likely for kids with how bright it was. Still it smelled very interesting.

But her favorite part was the bag.

It crinkled in a way that made her want to play with it more.

Crinkle. Crinkle.

Felin giggled to herself as she continued to play with the bag more roughly.

Finally she pulled too hard and the bag exploded, little balls sprinkled onto the floor clattering everywhere.

She froze and turned down both sides of the aisle, but no one was coming running.

Picking up the pieces, they were a variety of colors, just as much as the bag.

Just as she was about to pop the first one in her mouth, Fayeth came sliding around the corner. “Put. It. Down.”

Felin wanted to eat it just to spite her. “The bag was too flimsy. It broke when I picked it up.”

“That’s chocolate.” Fayeth answered by way of explanation.

Felin glanced at it. “What’s wrong with chocolate?” She popped it in her mouth. It was delicious. There was nothing wrong with chocolate.

“It kills cats.” Fayeth declared.

“I’m not a cat.” Felin hissed and in protest took a fistfull of the delicious chocolate and stuffed it in her mouth.

“Des, help please.” Fayeth started to wrestle the bag from Felin, only to lose her footing on the ones spilled on the ground.

Both of them fell over and Des came by, plucking the rest of the bag from Felin’s grasp. “Until we know how chocolate affects you, let’s go easy on it, okay?”

Felin pouted. Just when she had discovered a new human delicacy, it was taken from her. “I want two, no… three bags. Use my contributions. If this goes over well, then I will eat them myself. If not, Ken would enjoy chocolate, yes?”

“He would.” Des smirked. “Now, clean up your mess. This isn’t some grocery store on the surface. You clean up your own mess.”

Felin shrugged and with a snap of her fingers made a small whirlwind suck up all the pieces and deposit them into her spatial pouch. She’d eat them later. These floors were the cleanest she’d ever seen, except perhaps those in the equipment store.

Des raised an eyebrow at her putting it away.

“I am a Nekorian shaman. Some mundane toxin will not bother me.” She lifted her chin.

Des shrugged. “We’ll get you to Charlotte. Worst case, she has revive.”

“So, Des. You want to add that Marin to the pride?” Felin asked, following behind Fayeth as she scanned the aisles for her prized ingredients.

“Huh? I don’t care about her as a long standing member of the harem.” Des smirked. “She summons dragons though. I want Ken to steal that ability so he can ride a dragon into battle.”

Felin’s eyes sparkled. “Genius.”

“I know.” Des ran her hands through her hair, yet that one lock continued to fall back in place and cover one of her eyes. “A summoner’s entire power is in their abilities. Sure, stats play a role, but Ken is already struggling because his class needs him to increase all of his stats.”

“It’s good to be well rounded.” Felin said.

“I disagree.” Fayeth didn’t look up from where she was picking out meat. “Do I need to be good at dealing damage? No, I just need to be able to hold aggro and survive. Charlotte needs to keep us all alive, and Ken needs to do as much damage as he can.”

“He does good damage.” Felin bobbed her head.

Fayeth hummed. “I can’t help but feel that he’s still pushing too many stats. Does he really need that much mana or strength? If he just did agility, stamina and magic it might be easier for him.”

“Strength helps.” Des said. “But I see what you mean. He wants mana so he can use the portal and his finisher ability. Strength is probably less effective than focusing on being fast with the magic damage on his weapons. Yet, it is easier for him to cross train strength with agility.”

Fayeth shrugged. “My opinion doesn’t have to be right. Just saying that he could specialize more. You aren’t far from having enough mana for a portal, are you?”

Des smirked and held her hand out in the middle of the store. “Portal.”

A swirling circle appeared before her back to the 28th floor.

“Oooh.” Felin peered through, sticking her head into the portal immediately. “We need to get you to the place Ken wants to kill people.” She said as she pulled her head back.

“Stop saying that out loud.” Fayeth took a deep breath and selected a handful of marbled steaks. “She’ll be our ticket out. We will sneak in, or is the famed Nekorian shaman not up to the task?”

Felin smacked her fist to her chest. “I will sneak like the best.”

“We’d hope so.” Des teased her. “The rest of us have been trained by ninjas.”

Felin stormed ahead, making Fayeth hurry and snatch up all of her ingredients in a hurry behind her.

“Oh. What’s this spot?” Felin paused at a large section of empty shelves.

Des leaned in and read the tag. “Potato chips.” She smirked. “I think Crimson was here.”

The whole aisle of potato chips were gone, only leaving behind the ‘healthy’ options of the puffed crisps.

“Well, at least I don’t have to buy any for her.” Fayeth checked that off her list. “Though, I wanted to try some potato chip crusted chicken. I figured Crimson would love that recipe.”

“Ask her for some later.” Des shrugged. “Let’s keep going before the cream fiend finds something else to get into.”

Felin rolled her eyes. “I’m not that bad.”

Fayeth gestured back the way they came. “Experiences thus far beg to differ. You get into everything.”

“She’s a cat.” Des chuckled. “Sorry, a Nekorian. Who happens to share a cat’s penchant for curiosity and chaos.”

Felin rolled her eyes only for them to fall upon giant glass containers full of familiar cream and milk. She darted over, grabbed the handle, and nearly tore the door off its hinges, putting herself between the cream and another customer. “Mine. All of the cream is mine.”

“I just want the creamer.” The woman pointed to the top shelf.

Felin eyed the unfamiliar container. Creamer sounded like it was at least part cream. “Sure, here you go.” She handed her one.

As long as it wasn’t her precious cream.

“Look, Felin is sharing. That’s personal growth” Des came up as Felin was putting the items in her new CID. It chimed with little coin sounds every time she did so. This one was disabled on trying to check her body; it was just for storage and connecting to the UG systems.

“Our little chaos kitten is growing.” Fayeth laughed and snatched a few jugs of cream before Felin could take them all.

Felin snarled at her.

“I wonder where Crimson went? She obviously went here and snatched up all the potato chips.” Des changed the topic. “Think the prince is a stain on the dungeon floor?”

“Unlikely.” Felin was actually the first to answer. “He seems like a good whetstone for Ken. Crimson would leave him alive.”

The other two blinked and found themselves surprised that they were agreeing with her.

“Then… Ah. I bet the other school’s teachers must be here. Wonder if she went to find them.” Fayeth said.

“More likely taunt them.” Des sighed. “Go and rile them up so that they all come down hard on Haylon.”

“That seems more like Crimson.” Fayeth agreed, closing the now creamless dairy section.”

***

Crimson sat on top of Professor Gafar as the man pleaded for his life. Barret was missing half of his teeth a few yards away. His eyes were glassy and Trusk’s Professor Silwin was barely holding onto her consciousness.

“See? Haylon is the best. Best of the best. I cannot believe you guys started a betting ring and didn’t tell me.” Crimson complained.

“We didn’t know where you were.” Professor Silwin held her stomach that was bleeding.

“Then try harder. Really now, this is just silly. Barret, get up before I beat you more.” Crimson had hoped she’d enjoy bullying them, but sadly they didn’t even last a few minutes.

She pulled open a potato chip bag and started munching.

Barret shot to his feet. His outfit was skewed and the cape over his shoulder was about to fall out. Yet his feet were steady and his sword ready. “You’re upset that your students are at the bottom.”

“Damn right I am.” Crimson crunched chips angrily.

Really, who did they think they were?!

Ken was almost at the bottom.

She wanted to wring their necks for it.

“If you think they are wrong, just bet accordingly.” Gafar grit his teeth. “You must have some money lying around, unless you spend it all on chips. You weigh a ton.”

Crimson’s eyes gleamed and an ability shrouded her and Gafar, vastly increasing the gravity around both of them. “This is a new one I got. Gravity Field, what do you think? I bet it’ll be a great training tool.”

“Perfect.” Gafar grit his teeth to the point that one of them cracked.

“Anyway, I came to talk to you because your student decided to be an ass. Do you know he came over and tried to bet with my student, putting me as his prize as if I were an object for him to win?” Gravity around her doubled again.

Barret’s face paled. “What a fool.”

“It’s okay. He’s alive mostly because I think he adds some nice pressure to my star pupil. On that note, I’m going to bet lots on Ken Nagato. He’ll kick all of their butts. What do you think, Gafar? I learned Royal Academy is the one hosting the bets and setting the odds. Think you have the finances to take my bet? Or do you think I should just wipe out your class for your student’s actions?”

“Crimson.” Barret’s tone was stern. “You wouldn’t.”

“I can do whatever I want.” Crimson broke another chip and smiled. “That’s the perk of being the world’s strongest.”

“Killing your competition.” Gafar muttered.

She broke into full bellied laughter. “That punk who’s been carried?! Gafar, I had no idea you were a comedian. He’s going to do well because he’s got level forty one gear on. Shit, that stuff is going to bridge the gap for his lack of training. Yet he’s never going to be on the edge of pushing the dungeon with that sort of strategy. Don’t you even dare compare him to me or my Ken.”

“He’ll stick to the rules of the bet.” Barret promised her. “Now stop being a tyrant.”

Crimson stuck her tongue out. “Don’t wanna. I’ve been training my class in a dead branch of the dungeon for over a month. I’m bored. And none of you were even a half decent fight.” She tapped her foot against Gafar a few times. “Ah, none of you are fun. Enjoy losing the bets.” She grinned and disappeared so fast it looked like teleportation to them.

Gafar collapsed to the ground panting. “Who the fuck was that?”

“That was more like the old Crimson.” Barret put away his sword. “She used to be a bit of a bully when she was in school. It wasn’t until afterwards that she became a loner.”

“I think I’d prefer the loaner.” Gafar rolled onto his back and pulled out a potion to pour down his throat.

Professor Silwin stood up like nothing was wrong and straightened her robes. “Well, she’s quite lively isn’t she? Sounds like those students are doing her some good. This Ken? Can we look up his UG stats?”

“Nope. They are completely locked down.” Barret said while tapping at his CID. “No one except the UG president is getting a look at them it seems.”

“Unusual.” Professor Silwin nodded. “Already treating him like a high ranker. Well, then I’ll just have to work with Marin a little more. Girl’s got spunk enough for the whole class.” The Trusk professor folded in on herself until she became a paper airplane and shot off.

Barret nodded and glanced down to make sure Gafar would be fine before walking off in search of his own students.

Gafar grabbed a fist full of dirt as he pushed himself back to his knees. “I’m going to fucking kill this Ken.”