Dungeon 102 Chapter 5 (Patreon)

“Did you get it?” I snuck up on Charlotte, causing her to yelp and cover her mouth.

“Yes.” She calmed down and glared at me. “Bun-bun stole it right out from under their noses. Isn’t he great?” She rubbed the rabbit’s head while he looked at me, smug as hell.

I pulled a carrot from my CID. I’d learned to keep a bag of them handy. “Good job Bun-bun.”

The carrot disappeared before I even realized it had been there, and there was a giant bulge in his cheeks.

“Bun-bun. You are going to choke if you try to eat it all at once.” Charlotte panicked and tried to get the carrot out of his mouth.

The rabbit locked its jaw, shifting its head side to side to keep her from getting ahold of the carrot. Charlotte wrestled with him, but I was distracted by something else.

I cocked my head to the side. “Bun-bun, have you gotten bigger?”

Bun-bun paused just long enough for Charlotte to get a firm grip on his mouth and wrench the carrot out.

“Yes. He’s put on two pounds since the start of the semester. Since he’s a dungeon creature, he will continue to grow bigger and stronger. I mean, he’s obviously too smart to be just a rabbit.” She scowled at Bun-bun and broke a piece off the carrot before handing it back to him. “Even if he is a glutton.”

Bun-bun’s ears flattened back, and he looked pitiful.

“Don’t even try that.” Charlotte warned him. “You’ll get this carrot one piece at a time now.” She glanced up at me as she broke off another piece of the carrot for her pet. “What’s next?”

Bun-bun was pretending to be innocent as he accepted the next piece of carrot and sniffled.

“We should find the next camp. These two were obvious.” I motioned for Charlotte and Bun-bun to follow me as we headed away from the camps. Now that they had lost their flags, they weren’t worth our time.

Things were going to heat up as the number of camps with flags dwindled fast. It also meant we needed to get our flags and get back to help defend. It was going to get wild.

“Hey, Ken? Thank you.” Charlotte spoke after we’d walked for a little bit.

“For what?” I frowned back at her, but we kept moving.

“For having faith in me to help.” She clung tight to Bun-bun as we hurried.

I stopped and stared at her. “Charlotte, you’ve been helpful this entire term. Just because you are a healer and a lot of your contributions are indirect doesn’t mean you aren’t an equal part of this team.” I gave her a smile before shifting into a jog. We didn’t have a lot of time.

She was quiet behind me for a long while. “I know that.”

Interrupting her, I grabbed Bun-bun. “Go find us another camp.” I needed some time alone with Charlotte too.

The rabbit shot off into the dark, and I waved Charlotte over to some rocks for cover.

Up ahead was a marshy landscape. It would be difficult to camp in, and even harder to sneak up on with the soggy land. But our plan worked even if I was caught, so it made sense to raid the marsh.

“Listen.” I grabbed Charlotte’s hand, making her blush. “You are a valuable member of our team. What do I need to do to prove that to you?”

“Just the team?” She pouted.

I shook my head. Her insecurity was something that I needed to help her get past.

Grabbing her shoulder I pulled her close. Unlike the other two, I knew Charlotte wouldn’t make the first move.

She started to make a noise but I silenced her by pressing our lips together.

She flailed as I kissed her, her face turned bright red like a tomato. I waited to see if she pushed me away, but she didn’t. She was just too cute with how flustered she was getting.

I kept the kiss there until she calmed down.

Finally she kissed me back. She was tentative at first, then she showed just the barest bit of passion. She let me know how she felt as she pressed herself into my face with a single long kiss.

Finally, she stopped to take a breath, her face still completely red before she put her mask back on to hide it. “So pushy.” She grumbled, but I could hear the smile in her voice.

“Better?” I grabbed her hand.

“Better.” She mumbled. “I thought…”

I put a finger to the lips of her mask. “Des and Fayeth are aggressive with what they want. You aren’t. I need to adjust to that.” Managing a budding harem was harder than I thought.

The girls that came on strong were easy to let into my life, but Charlotte was softer. I needed to make a more deliberate effort.

The signals were clear though, she wanted something between us.

I rubbed my hand down her arm until I had her hand in mind. “I like you Charlotte.”

For a second, I could have sworn even her mask was blushing before she looked down at the ground.

“Ken… I… I like you too. A lot.” She managed to look up and finish her statement.

“Good. Otherwise this would be awkward.” I teased her. “So, how about another kiss while we wait?”

She hesitated before she slid her mask up with her other hand and waited with her eyes closed.

I gave her another soft kiss on her waiting lips.

She leaned into it, enjoying the kiss for a long minute before a squeak from Bun-bun interrupted us.

“Hush you.” Charlotte grumbled at the rabbit who chittered excitedly at her. “No. There’s no time for that.” She was blushing furiously again at whatever Bun-bun was saying.

“What did he say?” I teased.

She cleared her throat. “That he found another camp.”

Bun-bun deadpanned and turned to me with a small shake of his head before giving me an encouraging wink.

I was actually a little encouraged by the fact that Bun-bun approved.

“Well then, lead on Bun-bun.” I wasn’t going to keep teasing Charlotte even if making her turn beat red was a fun hobby.

The rabbit nodded and hopped through the marsh along a strip of land.

Each time I lifted my foot, there was a small suction noise from the soggy ground.

I tried to reassess my plan. It would be impossible to sneak up on someone who was on guard.

“Charlotte, I think I’m going to go in loud for this one. I won’t be able to sneak very well at all. You two can sneak in as I make noise and steal the flag again.” I held tightly to my mask as the glows of a banked fire appeared ahead.

There was a single student sitting on a log with her arms crossed. Her eyes were closed, but she seemed alert. She was listening.

Based on her garb, I guessed she was some sort of archer, but I didn’t know the class B students well enough to know if she had a pet like Charlotte.

“Okay. Get ready.” I nodded at Charlotte and moved away from her, circling the camp. I tried to give Charlotte some space, but there wasn’t much land to work with without stepping into the marsh.

A swish of water was the only warning I had that somebody was nearby.

“Sprint, Metamorphosis.” I hissed into my mask.

My skin turned dark and I bulged, my Yorai and my mask absorbing into my skin as I grew into my demonic form. My hands turned into claws, and if I’d had a weapon out, it would have disappeared too.

I grew several feet taller and put on more muscle mass.

Metamorphosis took half of my magic stat and added to each of my physical stats. It was a powerful ability that I gained from the demon lord bound on my pelvis.

A large lizard shot out of the bog as the student shot up from where she’d been sitting, an arrow notched on her bow.

She paused when she saw me, and I took advantage of her hesitation.

Sprint was active and I raced away from the lizard, slashing the open air, hoping to catch any alarms before I ran into them.

“What the—“ She stuttered. “Attack!” She shouted as she recovered from her moment of surprise, and she aimed and shot the arrow.

The arrow buried itself in my shoulder as I tried to duck out of the way, but that just turned my movement into a tackle.

Taking the chance, I swept her up and slammed her into the tent as her party scrambled to get out of the opening.

“Ah!” There was a collective shout of ladies as I landed on top of them with the archer.

“What? It’s a demon!” The hunter shouted.

Another of her party managed to get her head out of the tent only to stare at me in wide-eyed shock.

I punched her in the face, feeling bad for being so rough. But she would recover and there were good healers nearby.

A glanced over my shoulder, verifying the flag was gone. And that meant it was time to get out of there.

Rolling off of them, I blocked their vision and pretended to put the flag in my CID.

“He’s got the flag! Get him.” Another arrow buried itself in my back.

Thankfully, my stamina was through the roof and my metamorphosis made that stat ridiculous. Demon Lord Snusnu had given me some serious stamina.

I rolled my eyes just thinking of the name as I made a ton of noise, hitting the marsh and splashing everywhere.

“Charge!” A girl shouted nearby. I recognized Helen, the girl from the security council that had bothered me on several occasions.

Charge was a wonderful skill to close the gap in a dungeon, or even when fighting a person, but I found it far too predictable.

My ankles strained as I spun into her charge, curled my fist and throwing a devastating hook with all of my strength.

I caught her right on the chin, with my weapon-like hands.

But she had too much momentum and crashed into me with a heavy shield.

I grunted, both of us stunned for a second after the collision.

I took another swing of my hand, but she got her shield up in time for it to rebound off the hard, enchanted steel.

“Evil Doer! I will crush you.” Helen’s eyes glowed.

The girl clearly had some issues. And if she was in this party, then I knew I’d find another person present. Penelope was also on the security council and I saw the Frost Knight slowly coming my way.

I needed to get out of the situation.

I snapped a kick that caught Helen’s shield and pushed us apart before ducking low and running as fast as I could.

Penelope still had several levels on me, but my greatest concern was that many of her abilities could debuff me with a slow.

“Get back here.” Helen shouted, chasing me through the marsh, but her heavy shield prevented her from catching me. I activated sprint along with my metamorphosis. I could recover after I got away from them.

I got clear of the marsh, back on dry land and put as much distance from them as I could before I felt my mana dipping low. I dropped metamorphosis and sprint instantly.

Feeling faint from the arrows in me and my low mana, I sat down behind some cover and tapped on my CID to send a ping to Charlotte so she knew my location.

Resting on my side, I let my mana recover.

I had gotten pretty close to mana depletion. If that had happened, I could have feinted, vomited, or had to deal with other rough side effects that would put me out of commission.

In the dungeon, and the rest of life, it was best to avoid it.

A fuzzy something bumped into me and Bun-bun squeaked.

“Ken, are you okay?” Charlotte tried to look around in the dark.

“One second.” I replied, reaching into my CID and pulling out a glow stick, cracking it and shaking it up. “You’ll need a little light to get the arrows out.”

Charlotte hissed. “Ken.” Sympathy coated her tone.

“Not that bad. Remember the one time with the champion fribbit?” I reminded her of the grievous sword wound.

Charlotte shuddered and handed the glow stick to Bun-bun, who dutifully held it over the wound on my chest. “Hold still. This one didn’t go through. I’m going to have to pull it out the hard way.”

I grunted and patted the ground for a stick before shoving it in my mouth. My demonic stamina had made it hard for either arrow to go too deep. Which in the moment of battle wasn’t awful, but it was going to make the next few moments suck.

Charlotte grunted and ripped the arrow out.

It hurt like a bitch, but the pain was quickly followed with a green soothing glow. “Heal.” Charlotte whispered and closed her eyes to focus.

The wound itched a little as it healed.

“Next one.” She moved around behind me. “By the way, we got the flag.”

“I figured when I saw it was gone.” I mumbled around the twig.

“What did you say?” Charlotte asked.

“I—“

She took that moment of distraction to rip the second arrow out and cast heal. It was a crude but effective way to make it less painful.

Charlotte took both arrows into her CID. “All patched up. Anywhere else I need to check?”

“Thank you.” I rolled to my feet and kissed the top of her head, making her freeze. “Have I ever said how lovely it is to have a healer in our party?”

“Yes, but feel free to say it as often as you like.” She mumbled, clearly embarrassed.

I tested out my arms and legs, feeling for any wounds I might have missed with the adrenaline. “A cute as hell healer too. Nothing beats being taken care of by a cute woman.”

Charlotte stayed crouched down, now hiding her face. I could tell she was shy about it, but she was loving every second of my praise.

I just needed to keep pushing her. “Can I give the best healer a kiss?”

Bun-bun made a loud smooching noise.

“Not you too, idiot.” Charlotte bopped her rabbit on the head before she stood. “This can’t—“

I interrupted her with another kiss, though I made it short. We needed to keep moving. “Thank you for patching me up.”

“Are you going to start doing this every time?” She asked.

“Probably.” I teased.

She mumbled something under her breath that sounded like she was torn between wanting me injured or not.

“Come on. Secret Weapon Bun-bun, find us another camp.” I told the rabbit.

It squeaked and darted off.

“Stupid rabbit, you are only supposed to listen to me.” Charlotte sighed.

“Well, since we are alone again.” I grabbed her hips and pulled her down as I sat, planting her on my lap. “Tell me a little more about you. I know your family hesitated to let you come to Haylon, but so far things have been going well? What do your sisters think?”

She squirmed a little in my lap, but she got comfortable. “My second oldest sister is in her last year here at Haylon. She’ll be back at the end of the term.” Charlotte bit her lip. “She’ll want to see how I’m doing and my party.”

Words seemed to spill out of her mouth. “She’ll have high expectations, but she does it because she cares so much. Compared to my other sisters, she’s really strong and tries to look after us younger ones. So, she’ll probably not like you at first.” She ducked her head at the last bit.

“Huh? She won’t like me?” I frowned.

“She won’t like any of my party. Rachel will almost certainly pick a fight with you because she’ll say something like ‘you aren’t good enough to protect my sister’, then she’ll beat your face in to prove a point.” Charlotte hung her head.

“So? I can take a beating. If it gets really bad, then you’ll need to be strong enough to revive me.” I pointed out.

Charlotte gawked at me. “There’s no way I could have revive by then.” It took her a second to realize what I was saying. “Oh.”

“Yeah. We’ll deal with your sister when she comes. What about your other sisters?” I asked.

“There’s one in the grade above us. She’s nice. She’s the one that told me to look out for you on that first day.” Charlotte nodded to herself as she thought back to that moment.

I did too, Helen had attacked me then accusing me of trespassing because I was the schools first male student.

Charlotte had intervened and risked getting late to that introduction meeting and getting expelled.

That memory made me wrap my arms around her and hold her close. Even if she had some insecurities, her heart was in the right place. I’d just need to remind her often that her insecurities were silly things that didn’t matter between us.