Dungeon Chapter 25 (Patreon)

I stretched when I woke, only remembering Des too late.

But I didn’t hit anyone, and when I pat the bed to confirm the sight from my bleary eyes, I felt a loss when she wasn’t there.

There was a momentary pang of disappointment.

Then again, she had slept with me and I’d met her parents on a fucking first date.

Slow down, Ken. I admonished myself.

Slipping out of bed, I got dressed to get ready for a dive into the dungeon, making sure my CID had everything I’d need.

I went downstairs, still a little of that disappointment clinging to me like a sticky spot on the bottom of my shoe.

“Morning Ken.” Crimson was making pancakes while Des sat at the table already eating a stack.

“I tried to sneak down to make breakfast, but someone beat me to it.” Des glared at Crimson, who didn’t seem to notice as she happily flipped a pancake out of the pan.

“Pancakes are important fuel. Especially with how much noise the two of you were making. Ken, if I might suggest moving your bed a little away from the wall, or putting something soft between the headboard and your wall next time.” Crimson pinched her fingers with the word ‘little’.

I froze, feeling my face grow burning hot at the realization that she… she… heard us. I was completely mortified. What happened last night was supposed to be between just me and Des.

Crimson burst into laughter. “Don’t be embarrassed. It sounded like Desmonda was enjoying it quite throughly. Glad to know you aren’t that inexperienced or if you are, then wow.”

Des tried to hide it, but I could see the embarrassment redden her cheeks. “Or we could use my place. There’s no prying ears.”

“Just an entire dorm of girls without boyfriends.” Crimson added only for the two of us to glare at her. “Okay, okay. I could help you sound proof your room if it is that big of a deal. Though, with the envoy coming, you might want that.”

“Actually, that wouldn’t be so bad if you’d help.” I said, taking her up on the offer quickly. I didn’t need the elves, Crimson, or anyone else to hear my nighttime activities.

Des gave me a look like I was crazy to actually accept her offer.

I shrugged, taking a seat, just happy that Des was still here, and she was absent from my bed because she had wanted to make breakfast.

That was a sort of confirmation that she was as interested in this as I was.

Still, this was just the beginning. Keep it cool.

Crimson dropped a stack of pancakes in front of me and an enormous bottle of syrup, really too much syrup. Who needed a bottle this big?

Then she sat down with her own stack and proceeded to pour so much syrup over the pancakes that it pooled in her plate and threatened to overflow.

“What? I burn a shit ton of calories.” Crimson gave me a glare as she stabbed her pancakes as if daring me to say something.

“Did you not realize how much my parents ate last night?” Des asked.

“No, not really. There were… other things… on my mind.” I grumbled at the last.

Crimson nodded. “It’s okay. You can say you were staring at Desmonda’s breasts. They looked pretty nice last night.”

Des froze, unsure of how to respond. Neither of us were used to being teased by Crimson.

“Can you not do that to her all the time?” I looked at Crimson.

“What?” She stuffed her face with pancakes.

“It’s like you are trying to scare her away sometimes.” I pointed out.

Des raised an eyebrow, and I felt her foot touch mine under the table for support. “Are you trying to scare me away, Crimson?”

The powerhouse of an adventurer just grumbled something unintelligible and continued to eat her syrup and pancakes.

“So, dungeon today?” I asked Des.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind, I was going to send Harley and Charlotte a message to meet us here. I have everything I need in my CID. We can use the skillbooks my father got me and head out.” Desmonda smiled.

“Your father got you skillbooks?” Crimson asked.

“I had to bargain, but he got one for each of our party.” Des clarified.

Crimson seemed a little put off that Arthur was helping us. “Good for you. Ken, don’t just fluff with poor skills. Though the amount you can have is technically unlimited, your ability to effectively use them in combat is limited.”

I nodded, having heard similar things from my grandfather. “Focus on four or five for damage dealing, and two or three for emergencies. The rest need to for something outside of combat or I need to consider replacing something.”

Des bobbed her head in agreement. “I’ve heard similar from my father, though the numbers were a little higher. But that might be because he’s a caster and doesn’t have to worry as much about swinging swords in melee at the same time. Either way, I think all of us will love these skills.”

She started typing something out to Charlotte and Harley on her CID.

So I focused back on Crimson. “Any news about the elves?”

“None. While you are all in the dungeon, I’m going to be diving down and checking on the bosses leading up to here. Remember, if you meet the elves, giving a gift is a friendly greeting. I think the UG is telling everyone as they enter today. They might even be giving out little gift boxes for the elves. They want this to go off without a hitch and you never know who’s going to be their first contact.” Crimson continued to stuff syrup ladened pancakes in her mouth.

The elves were a big deal. Haylon and the UG were taking it seriously. I wouldn’t want to be the one to make first contact just with the pressure that would bring.

“Well, I hope you find them. It would be nice to know if they can help me with my class. And of course, the whole alliance thing.” I hastily added at Crimson’s expression.

She shrugged. “Elves go deeper than we do, but they also have different challenges.”

“Have you ever fought an elf?” Des said, looking up from her CID.

“Yes. They aren’t some perfect society. Different sure, but more alike to humans than you’d think.” Crimson pointed at her ears. “Pointy ears, and they worship a giant tree in their homeland.”

“I’m sure they’ll love that comparison.” Des said dryly. “Charlotte and Harley are on their way.”

“I’m all ready, my CID is filled with rations.” I said and noticed that Des was back in her uniform, ready for her own dive.

“Me too. Crimson, thank you for the meal.” Des bowed slightly as she got up.

“Just bring him back in one piece every time you go down, that’s all I ask.” our teacher said in return.

There was a slight oddity between the two of them this morning, but I couldn’t quite place it.

Either way, I walked with Des out of the visitors’ center to see Harley clinging to Charlotte and bouncing as they walked.

Bun-bun was atop Charlotte’s head trying to pry Harley off and failing.

“Ken.” Charlotte said with a wave.

Harley’s eyes went wide seeing me and Des walking out of the visitor’s center. “I fucking knew it!” She abandoned Charlotte and raced over. “Dessy, you slept over?” Her tone warbled with intonation.

Des’s hand chopped down on Harley’s head. “Shut up.”

Harley pouted as she rubbed her head and hid on my other side. “Nice job, man. I bet Des is killer in bed. Not quite as adorable as Charlotte, but I see you have fine and varied tastes.”

She wasn’t quite discreet with her voice, and Charlotte was blushing up a storm.

“Don’t tease Charlotte, or I’ll sick Des on you.” I warned.

Harley gave me puppy dog eyes. “You won’t.”

“I would.” Separating from Des, I grabbed Charlotte and pulled her into a hug, kissing the top of her head even as I saw her blush grow several shades darker.

But if I was to make this harem thing work, I needed to work on trying to show affection to all of them.

And after a night with Des, I felt that Charlotte would need some attention, so she didn’t feel left out.

Apparently, my sexy warlock agreed because she backed off with a smile that said everything was right between the two of us.

“Des, why don’t you share the good news with them?” The dungeon entrance was right next to the visitors’ center, so we didn’t have far to go.

My purple-haired girlfriend, gosh that was a little weird to think, pulled out three skillbooks. “My father made a bet during the semifinals and won us each a skillbook.”

“What was yours?” Harley peered over them, trying to decide which was hers.

“Dark Wave.” Des explained. “It’s a short ranged cone attack. We are going into the second level today, and we need some area attacks in our arsenal. It is a low rank AoE that works with my class. I’ll probably end up replacing it by level ten, but for now, it will work quite well.”

“Why will you replace it?” Charlotte asked, easily picking out her skillbook from the three and removing it from Harley’s options.

“The cone starts at me. Right now, I don’t mind getting close, but later, I’ll have to be more careful.” Des said, taking out the skillbook and learning it right there in front of us.

Charlotte held her book out. ‘Thorny Ground’ and added it to her CID, learning it as well.

It was an ability that produced a small patch of thorny vines on the ground. It did minor damage to anything crossing it, but most importantly, slowed them down.

A wonderful way for Charlotte to help support.

“Okay, which is mine.” Harley couldn’t decide on the last two.

That was because, unlike the other two, the last two weren’t attack skills, but rather two movement skills.

“You can pick.” I shrugged.

“Then I’m taking this one for sure.” She snatched up ‘Feather Step’. An ability that made the user lighter on their feet, literately able to jump higher or move faster.

Candidly, I was hoping she’d pick that one. While it might make the user faster, a lot of the power when swinging a sword came from your own body weight.

“Then I’ll take this one.” It was a simple skill, like most lower level ones. Sprint allowed me to increase my speed seventy percent for five seconds.

I added Sprint to my CID and learned the skill, filling my head with a new sense of it and it popped up on my character sheet. “Then are we ready to dive?”

“Yes, please.” Harley sighed. “I want to earn enough for that dress.”

“It was a level three dress.” Des reminded her.

“So?” Harley made a face. “Going to earn it.”

Wanting to get her off the topic as we headed into the dungeon through the UG, I brought up Meridith. “So, hows your priestly beauty?” I tried to make it a joke, but Harley just shrugged.

“She was pretty fun for the night, but I’m so over her and hunting for my girl. Come on, Ken, we are in paradise. I saw those letters. Live a little.” Harley nudged me.

“He’s living just fine.” Charlotte pulled me away from Harley. “You are a bad influence.”

Harley put a hand to her chest and gasps. “I never.” She pretended to be a pearly clutching old lady.

Their byplay, while amusing, wasn’t what we should be focusing on.

The UG was crowded as everyone was hitting a bottleneck at the dungeon entrance.

“— and that’s why we are handing out gift boxes.” Katie was at the front of the dungeon, addressing the other first-year students hurrying in for time in the dungeon after being denied for the last few days.

“Oh, Ken.” She noticed me and then suddenly all the girls did too.

I gave a slightly awkward wave. “Hi Katie. Crimson has already coached us in Elven Etiquette.”

“I would expect nothing less.” She produced four little blue packages with green ribbon. “There’s not much in there. It is about the act more than what’s inside. In the event you run into the elves, I’d recommend escorting them back to the surface.”

“Thanks.” I took the box and followed the rest of the students into the dungeon.

“We’re back!” Harley bounced, holding her flute.

Des rolled her eyes. “It was only two days.”

“Felt like forever.” Harley didn’t back down. “Besides, we had just gotten started. So it sucked the big one.”

It did feel right to get back into the dungeon and keep progressing.

Even if we’d only been in Halyon for a short period of time, I was ready to keep going.

The groups quickly spread out as soon as we entered the dungeon, though many of them beelined on a path to the right.

“That’s the way to the second floor.” I answered Harley’s question before she even asked it.

She put her flute to her mouth and played as she skipped along a suitable distance after the group in front of us.

A boggart spawned, and I activated Sprint, reaching it before the group on either side of us could react and put my sword right through the crystal and shattered it.

With my mana stat boosted by the Demon Lord class, I wasn’t even feeling a slight strain with the frivolous use of Sprint.

“How does it feel?” Des noticed and asked.

“Great, I can’t wait to get down into the second floor and away from other groups to use the one skill.” I felt a pep in my step at the chance to use Metamorphosis.

“What one skill? You just used Sprint.” Harley tilted her head in confusion as we hurried along.

I hesitated and Des stepped in. “Don’t worry about it, Harley. You’ll see it later.”

The pink-haired bard jumped and continued to play her flute as we hurried along to the second floor entrance.

Most of the time, the groups hurrying this way killed the boggarts, and there were only a few new ones that we ran up against.

By the time that we reached the second floor, we were still pretty fresh.

In the dungeon's wall, there was just a sudden set of stairs that led further down. It was a winding staircase that turned back in on itself before dumping us out onto the second floor.

It wasn’t that different from the first in terms of landscape; it was marshy bogs with strips of land running between them.

The group before us veered off to the left, so I brought our group to the right to find our own space to fight in.

“Careful, they were popping out of the bogs on the first floor.” Charlotte reminded us as I led us through the marsh.

There was a splash that got my attention, and I held my weapons up as one of the fribbits popped out of the marsh to our right, followed by three more in the same area.

“Get ready!” I shouted as they disappeared under the water again and ripples rushed towards us.

AN - I was struggling with how to end this first novel, given that this story and style really suits almost a continious web novel style. But I think I figured it out and can hammer it out over the next two days, then I have a decent amount of editing to do on this one to hammer the front of the story into a better shape for what it becomes.

Edit - Whoops meant to schedule this for tomorrow morning. Sorry I guess you all just get the chapter a little early.