Paladin of Shadows Chapter 14 (Patreon)

"Delta is the goodest girl." I whispered softly into a set of dark wolf ears.

A soft thumping noise rang out as Delta's tail thumped loudly on the bed we were sharing as in Alpha's infinite wisdom rather than punishing Delta with no meat with dinner she made her sleep on the couch alone... To which Delta promptly snuck into my room and into my bed as everyone went to sleep.

Oh and nice thing to note... Delta and Zeta, both being beastkin didn't really like clothes when they could help it so they slept completely naked.

"Is my Delta my good girl?" I whispered and her tail if anything increased in strength as she snuggled up agaisnt my tighter.

And she replied with as much as vigour as she could even as she smothered her voice into my chest as she snuggled up with me. "Delta is the bestest girl!"

I smiled and nibbled on those adorable wolf ears making her squeak and shudder agaisnt my form before I returned her deep embrace with my arms going around her bare form as I kissed her head. "Good. Now lets get some sleep Delta, we have hunting and training tomorrow." I whispered somewhat tiredly as the day had been long.

A muffled "Yes boss." Whispered out and I felt her lick my bare chest making my breath stutter before I just realized she was sharing her affection towards me in the same way I did in giving her a kiss on her head.

'You can never hate a dogs kisses even if it makes you feel a bit ick.' I thought with a wry smile at feeling the cool air coming from the monster stone-fueled air conditioner hitting the wet part of my chest from her licking it.

-

I awoke to the feeling of sweat covering my form... And a pressing weight on my chest and legs.

I groaned and opened my eyes and as I did so and took in my surroundings and bed occupants. My eyes twitched as I groaned out. "I am going to need a better air conditioner... It's too damned hot for this." 

As Zeta looked up at me from where she had laid herself out across my chest shamelessly disregarding my damned need to breathe as she grunted and said tiredly. "Jake... Make me food, I am hungry." 

I stilled before I lifted up a hand and then flicked Zeta across her head making her give out a small hissing "Nyah!" Noise and the loud cat noise made Delta snort and wake up with a loud shout. 

"Thieving cat isn't taking my boss hunting without me!"

And without missing a beat Zeta's tail whipped around and smacked Delta on the ass making the wolf girl howl loudly while Zeta yelled. "Who are you calling a thieving cat you stupid dog!"

Then both girls went comically still as a series of thumping noises rang out from outside and I couldn't help a sadistic chuckle as I said. "Yup here comes Alpha haha." 

My words were prophetic as it seemed the room darkened as the door to my room loudly creaked as it opened with Alpha's form stalking into the room with her taking in the two ladies' forms and my own still-dressed form and then rolled her eyes. "Zeta, Delta get up. We are having a meeting to discuss the coming steps for Shadow Garden." 

I raised an eyebrow at hearing that and I likewise got up and did some basic hygiene care to clean myself up before going downstairs to the large dining table that had become our 'war table' to discuss our plans.

But as I came down into the dining room I paused for a moment at seeing all seven girls were wearing their typical Shadow Garden full slime outfits. But seeing my confusion the tired Eta gestured to a pile of bowling ball-sized black slimes that made up our weapons and suits.

"Zeta and Delta collected some slimes from the dungeon and after taming them I made them into Shadow Garden Slime... Their magic stones make them weird though, the slime can channel our magical energy." Eta finished explaining before her head conked forward and with a dull thud I winced as her head hit the table.

"Yes, Eta did phenomenal work as per usual but beyond our armaments being secured for the decent future as we are unsure how our magically enhanced slime weapons will react to more powerful monsters' flesh. We are discussing two things, outreach in recruitment and financial independence of the dungeon." Alpha listed out and I nodded and took a seat next to Gamma and Beta who threw me a small smile at me joining in with their discussion.

Alpha coughed and then said. "For now, any plans the recruitment of numbers for Shadow Garden will need to be halted to be blunt. As with gods being able to suss out any lies we need to be able to safely establish ourselves in a place that no one could find us while in Orario..." 

I made a humming noise and I pointed out. "The dungeon has hidden caves and entire systems completely unknown to others with false walls and an entire boss that no one even knows just past Rivira but that's honestly too deep in the dungeon." I then took a drink as I had the girl's attention and then I continued.

"The false dungeon. Or better known as Knossos is connected to the dungeon's many floors as the bloodline cursed descendants of Deadulus have been building the man-made dungeon for centuries and its floors go down well past Rivira I know for a fact." 

The girls shared looks before Gamma spoke. "Jake do you know what defenses it has? Or how to access it." 

I nodded and then explained what I knew of it. First was how it was built in mind to match the dungeon so it was made out of the highest quality of materials so we had no way of blasting our way through it in any way.

No what we needed to do was get a magical item named a Daedalus Orb which would unlock the Orichalcum gates that filled Knossos and I doubted that even Alpha and Delta could break through those gates with their complete magic immunity and stupid amount of durability.

"Beyond Knossos's amazing defenses, and it having monsters to keep unwanted people out of it that will ignore people who have one of those orbs. The main issue is that the Knossos is home to Evilus and many other criminal organizations. So we would need to either clear them all out when they could easily be stronger than us currently or at least mark out and stake a point of territory in order to begin building up our forces." I spoke.

And then, I went on to explain how the leaders of Evilus at least in the prime timeline I knew were around level five with a couple of level sixes... With Alpha putting a finger up to her lips in thought.

"Level five and six huh... We need to see how our current forms stack up to a true level five or six but for now, this meeting is adjourned. Now Epsilon are you going into the dungeon with Jake again or-"

Before Alpha could continue Delta shouted out. "Delta wants to go hunt with the boss!" 

And I smiled wryly seeing Alpha's face twitch but after a moment of thought, I said. "Actually that's fine. I want Delta to give me more advice for hand-to-hand combat as I fight monsters and Epsilon will also be there to chaperone unless you have something else to do?" I asked the blue-haired elf.

Epsilon sniffed and threw back some of her lovely hair as she said proudly. "Of course not, I will always be ready to help our dear leader!" Even as I gave her an appreciative nod I saw Beta was pouting at being left out so I said.

"Beta, would you be willing to take me out to the dungeon tomorrow though? I would like to learn as well how to work with an archer or long-range fighter." I asked with a smile that made Beta nod excitedly with Alpha giving a small giggle at how I was making sure to keep as many people happy.

With that, I talked with Gamma a bit about what I knew about this world economy answering any questions I could with my foreknowledge and prior knowledge of this world until I was all but dragged away by Delta who shoved several slime balls into my combat suit to thick it up so I could make my own Shadow Garden style uniform and properly make weapons with the magical slime.