DD 202 Ch 18 (Patreon)

Chapter 18

Fayeth, Felin, Des, and I had just gotten back from our trip to the safe zone and entered our tent when Ami appeared in a flash.

“Hold on a second.” I waved for her to sit down while I plopped down on the couch, Charlotte still tucked into my arm. “I want to review what we all got while we were there.”

Felin came to sit down, but her butt only lasted on the chair for a second before she was up again, pacing like she had too much energy.

Fayeth watched her with a smirk while Des claimed the spot on my other side.

Like she knew there was a family meeting, Crimson appeared. She was completely clean of blood, but there were flecks on her potato chip bag.

I glared at her. “Who’d you kill?”

“Me? No one. Why? Where’d I get blood on me?” Crimson checked herself out.

“The chip bag.” I pointed to it.

Crimson turned it around and frowned before upending the bag and guzzling the rest of the chips. Then she threw the bag in the air and hit it hard enough to turn it into a fine mist that the dungeon would absorb. “What’s with Felin?”

The Nekorian in question was clutching her stomach before she straightened up and smiled. “Nothing! I’m a Nekorian Shaman and I will not be bested by some mild toxin!”

“Charlotte, do you want to help her out?”

“I have my own detox.” Felin refused the help. “It’s not needed.”

“She had chocolate.” Fayeth smirked. “Broke open a bag of candy at the store and had too much. I’m guessing it doesn’t agree with her Nekorian system.”

Felin was both a little green in the face and full of restless energy.

“Please, detox yourself and then sit down. Otherwise, how are we supposed to have a family meeting? You are part of the pride, right?” I knew it was a weakness of hers, but I decided to take advantage.

Several emotions flashed over Felin’s face before a cool breeze swept around her and she let out a sigh. “Much better. Guess I can still eat chocolate, just need to use [Cleansing Breeze].” She vaulted over the couch to land on the other side of Des.

Ami didn’t seem concerned about anything that was happening as she calmly began making tea.

Crimson perched herself on the armrest next to Charlotte. “So, let’s review what we did today?”

“Precisely.” I nodded. “I’ll start. There was a skill [Static Swords] that filled the skill I was looking to get. Its damage is a little lower than [Dark Blades] but it has a chance to paralyze. Then I picked up a new belt.”

Belt of the Ancient Kings - Strength - 14, Agility - 28, Magic - 10

“I looked for a chest piece that had the stats I wanted and could take a little bit of the heavy blows for me, but all of them had too much stamina. I’m looking to lean my gear just down to damage stats.” Putting the belt on, I looked down. It was a slick black, almost metallic appearance.

“Guess I’ll go next.” Charlotte said. “[Enveloping Mists]. It’s a higher level multi target healing over time. With the raid coming up, I’ve been looking for broader healing abilities.

“The staff from the current event has me fairly happy from a gear standpoint. I went looking for other boots with movement speed, but couldn’t find anything with a caster focus.” Charlotte sighed but leaned back against me. “Otherwise, Ken and I just spent some time relaxing. Oh and I bought more magical carrots for Bun-bun. Got to keep powering him up.”

The rabbit preened on top of her and leaned over to look her in the face before chittering softly.

“No. Not now.” Charlotte reprimanded him.

“Right, and Ken got himself two big bets.” Des smirked. “One to get Marin as a sex slave, the other to findom Prince Albar.”

I fumbled the tea cup that Ami was handing me and glared at Des. “I don’t think that’s how it happened.” Besides, if I had a financial domination kink I’d be milking Crimson.

“No. She’s got the right of it.” Crimson nodded. “Prince Albar is going to get Royally fucked.” She smiled at her own joke. “I went and played with the other professors. The UG’s lockdown on your information after Director Amato’s assessment and your performance with the dwarves was actually done quite well.”

‘Played with’

I thought about the blood on her chips bag.

Clearly she had antagonized them. But at least she seemed in a good mood.

I sighed. “Thanks for verifying that. Glad the other professors were able to entertain you. We saw how poorly I was ranked for the betting. I assumed they couldn’t be that stupid.”

“I put five billion down on you.” Crimson grinned like a loon. “So, you have to obliterate them during the DPS check. I won’t accept anything other than complete and utter domination.”

“Me neither. I put everything I could spare towards it too.” It was also a way to encourage myself.

“We want to be rich women, Ken.” Des reminded me. “We’ve all put down what we could. The shops here weren’t particularly impressive. Besides, a certain someone was putting all her money into cream. We didn’t spend much.”

“She didn’t even spend everything on cream. They ran out.” Fayeth sighed. “I got plenty of food and a new skill  [Backtrack] to help with some of the heavy knockbacks I saw in the raid report. Apparently, a few of the bosses like to punt tanks. Oh, and a pair of stamina rings.” She wiggled her fingers, still wearing the ring that I’d accidentally proposed to her using on her fingers, flanked by two higher level rings.

I glanced at Felin.

She just shrugged. “Cream and chocolate. I think I’m still ahead of the curve for your levels. That, and I’m comparatively poor. Oh! I got a CID and loaded it up with Neighbors.”

Finally, everyone’s focus shifted to Ami who had finished handing out tea and took off her mask to drink her own. “I’ve completed the second round of investigations. Unfortunately, Trish remains a mystery. Though the party putting out the hit has sworn on their lives that they won’t discuss who took out the target. They understand that we will kill them should they mention it.”

I nodded and sipped my tea. “That means the hit is on.” I glanced at Des. “Do you have portal yet?”

My purple haired lover pouted. “Yes, but it was supposed to be a surprise.”

“I should give you a big tour of the dungeon soon.” Crimson offered. “You can only teleport to places you’ve been.”

“Yes please!” Des’ pout fell away to a massive grin. “Elven world, too. Ken owes me a princess date.”

“Anyway.” I pulled the conversation back on track. “Two days to resettle here and provide an alibi. For now, don’t use portal openly Des. With Crimson elsewhere during the attack, we can argue we couldn’t have been there should the worst come.”

“You are that worried about them finding out?” Fayeth asked.

SJS Financial Group shouldn’t be underestimated. Even Prince Albar, with his head clouded by his infatuation with Crimson, was likely a very dangerous man in the dungeon. The gear he was wearing if he was at his limit in the 40’s probably had more stats than I did. He also had a perfectly tailored set of skills to his capabilities.

And the SJS could quite literally produce that level of talent en masse. Each time they did, that person could be stuck into the dungeon and produce income.

“They are dangerous.” I said simply. “A bank has the kind of finances to make our lives more difficult, even if we don’t come to blows. As for the budding Silver Fangs, it is critical that we don’t incur their ire.”

“Just kill them all. The best kind of stealth is when there are no witnesses. A target has to be alive to be a witness.” Felin’s eyes pinched together dangerously.

“You are talking like I’m not participating?” Crimson asked.

“Correct. Sorry, but this is a gig my grandparents have handed me to assess on my own. It feels like cheating to use you.”

Crimson shrugged. “I’m going to be your alibi, that’s fine. The other professors could stand to lose a little more money.”

I made a face, but Crimson only shrugged. “Alright, two days of training. We can’t slow down, if anything we should speed up. Then we’ll hit Brandon Sayer and that safe zone.”

My comment caused Crimson to finally lean forward. “I got a new ability too. You are going to love it for training.” She gave me a smile that I knew well, and it made my blood run cold.

***

Everything hurt. My bones strained under the gravity field from Crimson as I swung my training sword at her again. Purple lightning flooded my vision with countless stacks.

She stood in front of me in the training field, a thin sheen of sweat on her chest. I knew that the red leather didn’t breathe much at all.

It didn’t help that she had [Limit Break] active and was actively blocking my attacks while shifting around me and making me move to keep on fighting. Her blue eyes taunted me as she worked me to my absolute limits and beyond.

I couldn’t move far. Otherwise, I’d step out of the gravity field, and she would find another way to torment me.

She batted my strike aside and snapped a kick at my legs, taking them out in a single blow. “You’re done.”

“One more.” Purple lightning crackled around me as I tried to get back up and keep training, only for my body to fly up as she released the gravity.

My stacks hovered at the high number for a moment before starting to plummet and the world returned to normal speed.

“Don’t overdo it.” She caught me and pulled me close as my purple lighting threatened to zap her and she just didn’t care. “Hungry?” She held out a bag of potato chips.

I tore it open and didn’t even bother with politeness as I shoveled them into my mouth.

“You made it two hours. Honestly, you just need to eat. Like a lot.”

“Only two?” I asked, chips falling out of my mouth. “Felt like eternity.”

“Sadly, your regeneration doesn’t keep up with your increased speed.” Crimson clicked her tongue. “Can you stand?”

I nodded and bit my tongue to stop from crying out when the pressure of my body and the weights strapped all over me pushed down onto my knees.

“Here.” She put my arm over her shoulder and walked me back to the tent. “I want to say you’ve exceeded my expectations.”

I gasped playfully. “That’s even possible?!”

She rapped me on the head and I nearly fell down. “If you are so exhausted. Don’t joke.” She put me down next to Fayeth’s grill and rifled through the cabinet for pans before getting the fire going. “Prince Albar would be on his feet barking like a good dog as I prepared his food.”

“Sadly, I’m nothing like him.” I used the counter to bear some of my weight. “Which is a good thing, and we both know it.”

“Gonna take those weights off?” She changed the subject and started filling the pan with eggs, meat and a sprinkle of greens.

“After the gravity training, I barely feel the weights.” I flexed my arms, my strength had only gone up a few more points, but I was adjusting to the weights.

Crimson nodded. “Keep them on for as long as you can. You should passively gain a good amount of strength like that.” She flopped a disk of eggs and meat in front of me. “Eat.”

I didn’t need to be told twice, stuffing my face as soon as the food landed in front of me.

“Listening to Ami’s report, it seems that there’s an unknown in your assassination job tomorrow.” Crimson started working on another calorie and protein dense disk.

“Trish. She handles the books.” I said between bites. “Ami can’t find anything on her.”

“Which means she’s dangerous.” Crimson added.

I nodded, already suspecting as much. For someone to be hidden enough that Ami couldn’t find them with the Nagato Clan resources meant that she was likely the most dangerous of the group.

“Good. Good. But I won’t be there, and I hate it.” Crimson flopped another egg disk down in front of me. “Tomorrow take it easy. Go do the event and rest outside of it. When you get back from the job, you are going to be doing the most intense workouts of your life.”

Given that I was doing these in increased gravity and at accelerated speeds, I wanted to make a joke about hyperbolic time chambers, but that would likely go over Crimson’s head.

She frowned as if sensing something was unsaid.

I continued to dutifully devour her cooking. It was nowhere near as tasty as Fayeth’s, but there was something utilitarian and efficient about the food Crimson made. Which was Crimson to a tee.

She waggled her spatula at me. “Just don’t die. Or if you do, do it after everyone else is dead so Charlotte can pop you back on your feet. That girl is a good one. She might be a cute little thing, but deep down she’s got the drive and the grit to survive as a healer.”

I nodded along, accepting another egg disk and digging into it. “The party is in a good spot. I’m not so worried about them. Instead, my concern is the class as a whole. We will need to come together as a team better when the raid starts.”

“Already thinking so far ahead?” Crimson raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll win the DPS check. Training right now has me focused on being strong enough to cover some of the others weaknesses. If I can kill a boss faster, that’s less chances for someone to make a mistake. Even with this event, we are still fighting largely in our party structures. Although it’s likely that Harley is ahead of the game with her healer group.” I thought aloud.

Crimson nodded. “Raids are different by nature. In an event you can still divide and conquer. When you get to a single giant boss with far more effects, it gets tricky. Sharing damage of some abilities, dodging others or letting a tank take specific blows but not others. There’s more coordination involved.”

“Exactly. I’ll just kill things before they become too troublesome. There are always a few DPS checks in the dungeon. I can’t help but wonder if this test isn’t a way for the colleges to be sure we have the damage required to be able to beat the raid.”

Crimson smiled at my statement. The way she shifted her weight and put a hand on her hips said even more. “You’d be right. Though, there’s still time. Some of the classes want to push in. So the DPS check will also be testing the entire class to see if they can meet the threshold to go in.”

“The rest of the class?” I asked.

“They are still above average for their level. People sometimes get panicky when they are getting hit so some people might not perform. Generally speaking, I think class A will make the cut. Class B too. Heather has been working them hard to catch up.”

“It’ll be fine.” I nodded. We’d continue to separate the chaff from the wheat, especially with the increased training speed of the dungeon colleges.

Crimson shrugged, our teacher wasn’t one to worry.

Stretching much in the same way I’d often seen Felin, I felt my back pop satisfyingly several times. “Alright, I think we’re going to run the event soon and then I’ll be rested and ready to go for another round.”

She shook her head. “Here I thought I was going to have to be pushing you more. It looks like the bet really was good for you. Now, let’s get going.”