Dungeon Chapter 20 (Patreon)

When I got back, Crimson was still up, organizing a pile of letters on the table when I walked in. “Have fun?” She asked as she squinted at one of the envelopes and put it in one of the stacks she was sorting.

Must be fan mail or something, but there were a lot of hearts drawn on them.

I thankfully had adjusted myself before I came home. After all that, it just didn’t want to quit, or maybe it was my new demonic nature.

“Something like that. I successfully got my secondary class.”

“Good, The Renard girl came through.” Crimson smiled, holding out her hand towards my CID.

Of course she knew. The woman seemed to see through everything.

“Yeah, Des helped me big time.” I came over and showed her my new stats.

Crimson let out an impressive whistle. “That was an improvement, maybe not in the direction you wanted, but a very large improvement. You still have stats to spend. What will you do with them?”

“I feel like I jumped ahead in a lot of my stats, so I’ll probably focus on dexterity for now.” Without waiting for her to comment, I hit it four more times, dumping everything from my first level in dexterity.

Crimson grunted, neither in agreement nor disagreement. “We’ll have to figure out your main class. Hopefully, the elves can help since I haven’t been able to turn up anything. The disturbance in the dungeon is likely caused by them coming back up from lower in the dungeon. Their fighters would have been powerful enough to cause the type of damage necessary for it. So, good news. They are on their way.”

That was hopeful. “I’m going to focus on the tournament tomorrow for now. And… uh… Des said that you might have a way to hide my secondary class?”

Crimson smirked. “Already set it up. I knew what she was doing tonight. You don’t think she got all the rare ingredients she used herself, do you? She asked for my help.”

Huh?

The way Crimson was looking at me was a woman who wanted to be acknowledged.

Now I understood, otherwise it would have been too easy. “Thank you so much Crimson.” I bowed to her. Getting a secondary class and one so powerful was no simple feat.

Then another thought occurred to me. “Wait, if she owes you anything, let me take that burden.”

Crimson hit me over the head with a spoon. It was so quick and there was a moment of so much pressure I thought that the spoon was going to come down, splatter me and turn all of Haylon into a crater.

I thought I was going to die until it slowed down to a small rap on my head at the last second.

“Don’t be like that. I knew it was for you, so I helped, even if Des was too afraid to ask. So, no, she doesn’t owe me anything and neither do you. I promised I would help you and I can’t do much if you can’t level your stats.” She pursed her lips. “Now watch this.”

Crimson took two fingers and starting in the upper center of the screen, spread around and brought them back together to a point at the bottom.

Like a heart.

“There.” She gestured.

I had been distracted with the realization that a heart shape was what would be my secret key into the CID.

But now my sheet had changed. Demon Lord was gone, so was the skill Metamorphosis, but my stats were still ridiculously high.

“I think people will still notice the stats.”

She shrugged. “So what? There are a thousand ways to increase your stats. All they can do is notice and gripe that they aren’t your equal. I hid the metamorphosis spell. It is a dangerous one for you at your current level.”

“What does it do?” I asked at the same time as I pushed the spell itself to answer my question.

Metamorphosis: User empowers their body with demonic energy, increasing their strength, dexterity and stamina based on their magic. This spell continues to consume mana until it is deactivated.

I let out a soft whistle. “So it turns a mage into some buff brawler.”

“Stats aren’t everything. A mage typically doesn’t have the secondary training to fight hand to hand, unless, of course, they were raised in a family that often took on demon secondary classes.” She raised an eyebrow at me, waiting for me to understand.

Now Desmonda’s training made more sense. If this was a common spell among demon classes, then it made sense why her family would split her focus like that.

“But I have the training.” I said with a smile.

“Yes, you do. Now if only you didn’t just dump all your stats into dexterity, but don’t use the ability in the tournament tomorrow. You’ll make it perfectly clear to Marlow that you have a demon class and when she see’s charm in there as well, there is absolutely no way that she lets you stay at Haylon with an incubus type demon class.” She rolled her eyes. “So keep it under wraps.”

“Yes. Of course.” But she didn’t say that I couldn’t use it in the dungeon.

The dungeons would be open to us in two days and then I was going to have to get down there with my group and give this spell a try.

If it scaled based on magic, I was unlikely to be anywhere near as large as Demon Lord Snusnu had become.

He had the stats of a level 45 boss monster.

I felt a shift in my pants as once again the monster tried to make himself known.

Clearing my throat, I sought an exit. “Thanks Crimson, I need to go get some sleep if I’m going to compete at the top of my game tomorrow.”

She chuckled, and I wondered if she saw.

Hurrying away, it came loose as I walked up the steps and I hurried into my room, pushing down my pants and seeing a winding tribal tattoo across my pelvis and little vein like barbs trailing up my shaft.

I didn’t go to sleep right away, instead going into the bathroom and relieving myself, multiple times as the images of Charlotte, Des and even a few of Crimson trying to butt into my mind as I tried to get rid of this.

***

The next morning, I was up early, feeling great and got ready, grabbing food and heading off to the gym to get some warm up in before I fought with Penelope.

With the sudden stat change, I needed to reaclimate my style.

As soon as I got to the gym, I saw a crowd was gathering in the rocky setting in the center. The fighting wouldn’t start for another hour, but it seemed the first year’s competition was drawing a crowd from the other classes and the faculty.

My breath hitched, realizing it was going to be more than just a test. I’d be performing in front of a crowd.

But I quickly pushed that from my mind, running to the field area and pulling out my sword and dagger.

Honing my mind to a sharp edge, I walked slowly through the first kata. In smooth, controlled motions, I went through slashes and stabs. My muscles warmed up quicker and a few times my arms got ahead of the rest of my body.

I was just a little too quick for myself.

Speeding up my steps, I tried to keep my arms in pace with my hips. Hips drove everything. I couldn’t forget that just because it seemed I had a little more speed.

The familiarity of the kata helping me focus as pushed everything else from my mind and then I switched instantly to the second kata and moved through it with a pace that made my heart pick up and sweat start to cover my brow.

Today I needed to be in peak form. So I worked myself, flowing through imaginary combat. I imagined Penelope with her long sword as my opponent, firming up my blocks for someone that I knew would come swinging with a large amount of strength.

Once I was breathing hard and my muscles felt like they had gotten a mild exercise, I stopped.

There was no reason to exhaust myself before the fights.

When I finished, there was an excited clap. “That was really good.” Charlotte had found me and was watching. “I knew you’d be over here.”

“Yeah?” I smiled.

“You talked about your training like it was calming now, even if you blame your grandfather a lot.” She came up and handed me a towel.

“Thanks.” I wiped at my forehead. “Yeah, it helped me get rid of the extraneous thoughts. I think I’m about ready.”

“Good, if you didn’t stop soon, I was going to have to interrupt you. Penelope came down a half an hour early and has been standing on the stage waiting for you. Her father even came and I think there’s some betting starting.” Charlotte had a nervous smile.

I blinked a few times. “Her father came? Isn’t he some upper 40s hot shot?”

Charlotte nodded. “Yep. Total B string, probably why Penelope has such a chip on her shoulder. But I think this is all getting a little more heated than we thought.”

“I’ve heard of the guilds starting to scout from schools, but isn’t this too early?” I handed her back the towel, and she replaced it with a water bottle.

“We are Crimson’s class, and you attracted no small amount of attention. I even saw a news segment where they were trying to figure out who you were.”

Of course, the news would chase even the slightest rumor around Crimson. I drank just a little water to solve my immediate thirst, but didn’t want to feel too heavy for the fight ahead.

My focus was resolutely there on the fight, but with Charlotte here, I had something else to tell her. “Char, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

She shook her head, the braid smacking against her chest. “Whatever it is we can talk about it after. I don’t want to distract you. Penelope has a debuff that slows you down, otherwise I don’t know what skills she has.” Charlotte brought my focus on the fight.

“After, we’ll talk. Des helped me with my class problem and asked for something.” I tried to at least give her the beginning of the conversation to prepare her. After what happened last night with Desmonda, I couldn’t just ignore it.

Charlotte pursed her lips but sighed. “It’s fine. I know Des would pursue you. We will talk more later. At least you didn’t bring up the letters.”

That was a relief. “What letters?”

She had shown some jealousy at the date, but something had changed.

There was a look of surprise on her face. “You didn’t get any letters?”

“No?” I frowned, thinking back to last night since the date. “Crimson had a bunch last night that she was sorting, but I thought they were just her fan mail or something.”

There was a look of understanding that dawned on Charlotte’s face. “Don’t worry about it. You were right. Focus on the fight with Penelope. I’ll just talk to Crimson.”

“Right, we’ll talk after.” I let her get away with not going into detail if I didn’t have to talk about what happened with Des last night.

Charlotte looped her arm in mine and walked with me to where everyone was gathering, and she held on tight as the girls of the school realized who I was.

More than a few girls waved excitedly at me and others turned to their friends, whispering and pointing.

“This is awkward.” I said.

“You’ve become quite popular lately.” Charlotte admitted. “A lot of the girls are talking about you. For a lot of them, you are really the only option here.” She grumbled the last part, but I still heard her.

“Well, they aren’t as cute as you.” I squeezed her arm.

She immediately turned bright red. “Not in public.” She squeaked.

It was cute how easy she was to embarrass. “Fine. Cheer for me, it looks like I shouldn’t keep Penelope waiting.”

As Charlotte said, the frost knight was standing in the fighting area, her eyes closed as she had her sword stabbed in the ground and she was resting her hands on it.

It almost looked like she was in prayer.

That sword of hers was most certainly magical, as well as the shoulder armor she was wearing. My opponent was waiting, her blue hair falling over her face, making it impossible for me to get a read on her expression.

But I stepped up and, like someone had notified her, she looked up, staring me in the eyes.

There was an intensity there.

She pulled her sword free from the ground and pointed it at me. “Is the healer ready?”

Miss Sae was officiating at the side. “The healer is here. Are you ready, Ken?”

I drew both of my weapons from my CID and felt my heart beat pick up as I got ready to fight. “Yes, mam.”

She snorted and raised her hand high. “Fight.”

Like when she fought Charlotte, she was cautious, moving slowly but a swing of her sword and her lips moved in a whisper. I felt a chill wash over me and my joints felt stiff.

That must be a debuff.

Watching her stance, I realized she was primarily a defensive fighter.

Testing her, I dashed forward, swinging from the side with my short sword.

But Penelope shifted her blade fractionally, catching my blade and pushing against it hard enough that it disturbed my hips and I had to bring in my knife hand to hold back her blade.

I pushed off her, having gotten a feeling for her. She was primarily strength and knew how to use it. Even with just a single long sword, she controlled the surrounding space extremely well.

“Do you feel your death looming?” Penelope smirked.

I scoffed at her. She might be good, but I was assassin trained. If there was one thing I could do, it was find a weakness. Diving back in, I came at her with a rain of quick attacks.

But my speed was slowed, and she was quite good with that sword, anytime I got close to coming in with my second weapon she would press me hard enough that I’d either need to give up an arm, dodge or use my knife to help block.

I drew back, and she came at me.

Her feet were slow, but her swing was deadly fast. They were simple, efficient and powerful swings.

I needed to switch this up.

“Earth Stomp.” I cast my ability.

“Guard.” She inverted her sword for a second, stabbing the ground as a shield covered her sword and blocked the path of my Earth Stomp, protecting her footing.

I used the moment to get close. “Dark Strike.”

But she only smiled as she blocked with her arm.

For a moment, I was terrified that she was sacrificing it for something else, but when my blade hit her forearm, it clicked with metal and I tore away her sleeve revealing a solid metal bracer that she used along with her strength stat to push me off.

“Frost Blast.” Her hand followed through from the block and a wintery blast shot from her hand to my face.

I had to shield my face as little shards of ice tore at my forearms.

Backing up, I saw the situation was back at the start.

She had leveled her sword at me again with a smile on her face. She had a torn sleeve, but otherwise, she was unharmed.

Meanwhile, I had a number of shallow cuts on my forearms.

“I see.” After that exchange, I understood her better. She really was a tank. In this situation, she wanted to wear me down.

But I wanted to deal a critical blow early.

Spinning my knife for a moment of thought, I formed a plan and raced back in. This time I pushed my body, improved by stats, to my limits.

Rather than slash and cut, I stabbed, forcing her to use the flat of her blade to block and enabling myself to switch the pressure from the right to my left quickly.

“Earth Stomp.” I added another to the mix.

“Guard.” She matched me with a smirk, thinking it would go the same as last time.

But I kicked her sword as hard as I could.

That caught her off guard.

Her style was too formal. I thought it might work to start fighting dirty.

She stumbled as the pommel of her sword hit her in the gut and I was inside her guard at that moment, too close for my sword, but my knife punched into her side before I rolled to the side.

My several strands of my hair fluttered in the air where her sword had swung up as soon as she recovered.

Far too close for comfort.

Penelope kept her sword angled at me as she checked her side, bringing a blood stained hand up in front of her for confirmation and grabbed her sword again. She acted as if the wound wasn’t a bother, but I had nearly gotten the full length of my dagger into her side.

“You aren’t going to last long.” I said, stepping back and watching.

“Long enough.” She glared at me and took a single step forward, then another.

I moved back, seeing the blood spread from her side. “I can just wear you out this way.”

“Fight me.” Penelope growled. “Frost blast.”

A shower of razor sharp, but small ice sprayed over me, but at a distance it didn’t seem very effective.

Penelope grew angry and suddenly moved far faster, but she wasn’t so much chasing me, but as she used the strength to swing her sword, she used that momentum to take huge strides forward.

“Got you.” She growled.

As I tried to disengage again, she pressed onward with these sloppy swings.

I dodged under one and ran my dagger across her side as she hit me with another frost blast.

Something about this one did more to me. My knees locked up for just a second and she came back around with her long sword in a deadly chop.

The grin on her face told me this had been her secret weapon.

But I had one too.

I whispered. “Charm.”

There was a moment where we both stared into each other’s eyes, and her swing faltered for a second, long enough for me to shake off the chill in my limbs and get out of the way.

Penelope shook her head and glared at me with a new anger. “I’m going to kill you.”

“Say that when you aren’t the one bleeding on the ground like that.” I came back at her expecting her to be weakening with the blood loss, but Penelope guarded herself well even if she was starting to slow.

Her guard was weakening, and I pressed my advantage, working in a stab to her forearm when her swing didn’t have the power it had previously to force me back.

That was the end with one hand and the blood loss. She didn’t hold her sword tight enough.

I knocked it away, and it clattered to the ground before I got up close, crossing my swords across her throat and putting my face in hers.

“If you hurt Charlotte again, there won’t be a healer for you next time.” I stared into her eyes and made sure she understood, before drawing the dagger and sword across her neck like improvised scissors.

Blood splashed on me from being so close, but I wanted her to see it when she revived.

The crowd was quiet for a moment before girls started to cheer and whistle at me.

I rolled my eyes. This was getting to be a little much.

The healer was a new one, and the woman rushed over to Penelope, giving me a glare before pressing her hands to her and muttering something as a white light washed over Penelope and the girl appeared whole and touched her throat before sitting up and looking at me with a strange expression.

I snorted and walked off. Crimson was standing next to a few powerful looking adventurers and beckoned me over. One was a man with short cropped blue hair and a towering shield on his back.

The way he glared at me with hate told me he was likely Penelope’s father.

“Everyone. This is my protégé, Ken.” As I got close, Crimson grabbed me and placed her hands firmly on my shoulders. As she did, all the blood disappeared and my clothes re-knit themselves. I wanted that skill.

But I tried to pay attention to who Crimson was focusing on. This group was all powerful and likely famous adventurers.

Her focus was on a couple. The man wore a purple suit. He was tall and thin, but something about his body radiated strength. There were woman next to him, but one clearly identified them as Des’s parents.

Desmonda looked a lot like her mother, but didn’t have the same powerful magnetism that her mother held. It was hard to pull my eyes off hers.

“Oh, this is the boy.” Des’s father looked me up and down and seemed unimpressed. “I don’t see it Crimson.”

“Just you wait.” Crimson pat my shoulder. “Let’s see your daughter fight and then the two of them can go at it.”

She shifted her focus to Penelope’s father. “I think you need to pay up. She lost, brutally so.”

The crowd laughed a little and the blue-haired man glared at me as he held his CID out to Crimson before it dinged. Somehow, I knew she just made me a new enemy.