RD 2 Ch 17 (Patreon)

Chapter 17

“Grandson.” A man with a heavy white beard appeared in the orb upside down while Zane hurried to reorient it. “Tell me about your initiation.”

“Ancestor. The levels are rising.” Zane hurried to get to the important part.

The man stroked his beard. “We noticed that on the outside, and that’s why I contacted you. Do what you can and then take everyone to a sanctuary and rest for the remainder. Consider it a vacation.”

“We just killed a mini boss.” Someone called out.

“Oh?” Zeus asked. “Well done Zane.”

“Wasn’t me. It was Bran.” Zane answered as the person holding the orb turned it to towards me.

I scratched the back of my head, right now I looked like a mess. “It was just a boar.”

“A tough one. What level was it?”

“Fifteen, ancestor.” Zane said hurriedly.

“Please please. How many times must I insist on grandfather. I much prefer it even if it’s not entirely accurate.” The old man had a kindly expression on his face. “Looking at him, did he solo it?”

“Yes he did.” Zane hurried to give me credit.

“No way.” Another voice behind Zeus sounded. “As a mini boss and level fifteen that puts its stats… around 1800 with a focus on physical stats. You guys might have over two thousand, but you’re more rounded with intelligence and spirit.” The heroic looking man got close to the orb to see me.

I hadn’t realized that Hercules was there as well.

“Well done Bran.” Circe’s voice came through. “Though you still haven’t accepted my offer to join Odyssey, I consider you under my protection for now.”

Both the old men harrumphed at her clearly staking a claim.

“I’m likely to take you up on it when I leave.” If she was going to offer me shelter, there was no reason not to step out of the raid.

“Regardless of where you end up, Heros Clan is stronger for it.” Zeus said imperiously. “Zane, lead your people to a sanctuary and be sure to keep everyone safe.”

Zane hesitated. “Galen took half of the initiates the other direction around the island. He didn’t want to travel with me.”

“He’s a willful child. Don’t worry about him.” Hercules dismissed the comment with a slight blush on his face as the other leader must be staring at him.

“Understood. How long will we be here?” Zane asked.

“Until the instance stabilizes, likely at max level of 137. It will take a little over two weeks.” Circe answered from the side. “Until then you all need to stay safe. It’s been decided to respect the ancestor and not risk damaging the instance. You should have plenty of food to ride out the duration.”

“We can still train, right?” I asked.

“Starting tomorrow, the monster levels should be too high for you to train.” Zeus said. “It would be best for you to stop fighting the monsters or you risk serious injury.”

“If you can train in some way safely, please feel free.” Circe said from the side, the crystal turning to focus on her and I met her eyes through the crystal.

“Maybe we should try and get in touch with Galen’s group.” Zane said. “It might not be safe to wander about after one more day. If we gathered up in the same sanctuary, it would be easier to rescue us.”

“We’ll have to enter and clear the instance ourselves.” Zeus mumbled and rubbed his beard. “Hopefully it remains open after all of this. A high level S rank instance like this… would be an incredible boon for the clan.”

“Alright grandfather.” Zane nodded. “We’ll discuss and make sure we stay safe.”

“Take care everyone.” Circe got the last word in before the crystal winked out.

Zane looked up at me. “What do you think, Bran?”

“No offense to Galen, but I think he isn’t the friendliest of sorts.” Me devouring the leech hadn’t occurred in the past timeline so there was a chance under this pressure that Galen wouldn’t pick a fight, but I suspected that sort of nature doesn’t change.

If anything, the changes in the instance might create an excuse that he could use.

Zane nodded thoughtfully. “We still have to help them. I’m happy to go alone and check to make sure they are safe.”

That was probably worse. “No, we can’t let our fearless leader go off on his own. I’ll head that way with you. Maybe there are some cyclops that we missed and can clean up.”

Rylan was still staring at my loot. “Going to pick that up before we leave?”

I rolled my eyes and picked up the bonetooth necklace and the gold.

[Necklace of Gore - Gore S]

I slipped it over my head knowing that the ability could be used with a weapon. I didn’t have to have a pair of tusks for it to work.

“Fits your current savage vibe.” Nyx smiled at me and looked down at where my clothes were torn, blushing at my exposed abs.

“If I thought it would let your snake hair get the ability, I’d give it to you. Then again, you really shouldn’t be in melee.” I inspected her with Soul Gaze.

All of them were level 9 and getting close to their next class ability.

Nyx nodded sharply. “Getting used to the snakes.” One of them came around the side of her head and its little forked tongue licked at her.

“They seem to like you. By the way, you know your eyes have changed color, right?” I fell into their group as Zane started to walk along the mountain base.

Nyx panicked and reached for her hip only not to find what she was looking for.

I pulled a mirror out of my spatial ring. “Here. They’re really eye-catching.”

“I need a spatial ring.” She groused. “Didn’t exactly bring my purse with me.”

It was easy enough for me to twist off the old F rank spatial ring I had from my first dungeon with Bobby. Honestly, I wasn’t using it. “Here you go.”

She blushed deeper. “Giving a girl a ring like that and you’re going to cause confusion.” Her eyes found Katie who was thankfully looking ahead.

“Yeah. Well, Katie is very confused as it is. I made it fairly clear she was to leave me alone last night.” I said.

Nyx looked in the mirror again. “What color would you call them?”

I thought for a moment. “Ghostly green.”

She scowled. “I don’t know if ‘Ghostly’ is very attractive. I was thinking more like mint.”

“That works too.” I kept my eyes forward and saw Katie glancing back at us. “Ugh. She’s going to be a problem.”

“Can’t really blame her for looking, Bran.” Nyx put the mirror away and pulled it back out of the ring several times testing how it worked.

“What does that mean?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Uh… you do know that you’re smoking hot, right?” Nyx blushed so hard I thought even her snakes took on a little red in their cheeks. “The barely covered thing with the ripped shirt and the splatter of blood doesn’t detract from it at all. Probably makes it worse. It was like watching an action movie hero, complete with the ab pans.”

I turned to stare at her fully.

“What? My eyes just did it naturally.” She held up her hands in defense. “It’s human nature. Besides, you have two girlfriends.”

“How does that make you staring at me like a piece of meat any better?” I pursed my lips.

“Don’t know. I’m grasping at straws here and you’re giving me a scary look.” Nyx gave me a weak smile.

“Eighteen year olds.” I sighed.

“Pretty sure you’re one too.” Nyx added.

My body was certainly one. No matter how much my soul ran things there were a few extra hormones flowing around in my head for sure. “I guess I just feel older.”

“Well, you sound like you’ve been put through the wringer.” Nyx shook her head and amusingly her hair barely shifted as all the serpents maintained their vigilance.

Two of the snakes looked around us while the rest sneakily kept eying me.

“Can you see through them?” I asked, curious about the ability.

“No?” She hesitated. “I understand what they see though. So if someone walks up behind me I still know who it is. So… maybe?”

“They act largely on an instinctual basis. Got it.” I nodded.

“Something like that. So, you and Katie?” She asked.

“Really has a thing for vampires. I took a little blood and then she started going on about how I’d hypnotized her.” I put two fingers to my brow and rubbed. “I have no hypnotism or I’d be using it for other things. Whenever I said something she didn’t like, she’d start this weird narrative about how I was hypnotizing her. Got sick of it and punted her from my roof last night. Made wards to keep her away.”

Nyx blinked. “So she’s a bag of crazy.”

“A big ol’ bag of crazy.” I agreed. “Pretty sure if Gloria met her she’d end up a burnt crisp on the ground.”

“That’s one of your girlfriends?” Nyx pushed for more.

“Yeah. She didn’t come to the clan with me. Instead she’s back in Vein City. She’s the daughter of a mafia boss and we’re using that organization to dig into the gold exchange system out there.” I pulled one of the system gold coins from a spatial ring.

“Oh. Right. There’s probably a lot of trading with those.”

“What they really needed help with was laundering the cash they get from sales.” I explained. “Gloria is sort of a financial wizard even if she doesn’t look like one.”

“What does she look like?” Nyx kept pushing.

“This tall. Silver-purple hair often in a pretty tight bun.” I held my hand up. “Likes to wear coats over her shoulders. Oh, and everything is pretty much diamond studded.”

“Sounds like a badass.” Nyx grinned. “I was worried you were into pretty potted plants.”

“Huh?” I made a face, not understanding what it meant to describe a woman that way.

“You know. The kind that look really nice and you make sure are put out of the way so no one trips on them. You forget to water them until you see them starting to wilt.” Nyx really dug into the analogy. “It’s how my father is. He’s got eight mistresses and my mom.”

I let out a whistle. “Busy man.”

“He hired most of them to work in some capacity for him so he could keep them close. At least, I think that’s the order it was done in.”

“Does he run instances?” I asked.

“Yup. That’s what all his ‘business trips’ have been over the years.” Nyx sighed. “Really was like having the film peeled back on my life to learn about the Heros Clan and all of this.” She waved around. “Kind of terrifying to know that Zeus is family.”

I chuckled. “He’s not the original Zeus. I think this one is only two thousand years old, but he’s pretty strong.”

“You say two thousand like that isn’t ancient.” Nyx shook her head. “He’s older than dirt and powerful enough to make my father scared.”

“Keep leveling and working on your skill ranks. Before you know it, there will be more people afraid of you than you’re having to be careful of.” I said. Really there just weren’t a ton of opportunities to level in the current state of the world. Those that did exist would be quickly gobbled up by those with privilege like the leaders of the clan branches.

After the Rapture, there would be many more opportunities to increase levels and stats. Grinding demons was highly effective and instances no longer needed to be quite so contained.

“Maybe.” Nyx mused. “For now I’d settle with adjusting to the changes happening to me. Gonna lose my legs, aren’t I?”

I gave her a look. “Yeah. You are.”

“There are already scales forming all the way down my legs.” She sighed. “Is Gloria monstrous?”

“Huh? No. She’s got some sharp teeth but that’s it. Simone, my other girlfriend who’s here with us, has horns.” I mimed in the air as if I were grabbing them.

“Handlebars you mean.” Nyx laughed. “Don’t think my snakes would put up with that.”

“Cyclops!” Zane shouted from the front of the column. Nyx had her bow ready in an instant, snapping off several arrows into the first cyclops to burst through the trees.