by Brent Tyman
“My handsome Alex is the reason I left my Clan to begin with, for your information.”
“Preposterous! What business would a vixen like you have with Alex?” Juliana demanded
“I’ve joined his Clan, and we message each other long into the night.” She stroked my arm, smiling up at me. “We’ve even shared a few kisses,” Clarissa fake whispered, a satisfied smile blooming on her lips.
Juliana's eyes went wide in surprise, that dark aura of hers winking out for a brief moment before returning with a vengeance. “Why would you leave your clan to join his?”
“Maybe because he’s such a sweetheart and I’ve become smitten with him,” Clarissa replied with a hint of haughtiness. This was a side of her that I had yet to see. Maybe Juliana’s comments about her weren’t that far off the mark.
“How dare you…”
“I’m doing you a favor, Juliana,” Clarissa smirked. “Your father wouldn’t approve of you interacting with a commoner, anyway. My father’s wishes are far less of a complication, since I left his Clan.”
“Must you really talk such drivel outside of the academy as well?” Juliana huffed, her eyes narrowing dangerously. “You know your magic is inferior to mine and as heir to the Sovereignty, I am not afraid to use it.”
“If you want a war between our nations, then by all means, attack me,” Clarissa batted her eyelashes in invitation.
I ducked down, with a hand to my forehead, as the women continued to fire insults back and forth. Never, in my relatively limited time here, would I have ever imagined Juliana would utter the words ‘harloting tart’, but I suppose there was a first time for everything.
While I probably should have broken up their tiff, fight, or whatever it was called, I honestly couldn’t be bothered. The energy both women were putting into the spat made me realize that it wasn’t worth it.
I did the sensible thing, though, ordering up another slice of the shop’s tasty fish from a waitress as she was heading back inside. It arrived a few moments later and I had eaten almost half of it before Juliana turned to me with a stern but questioning gaze.
“Wha… What?” I said, still munching happily on my meal.
“Is it true, Alex? Have you really given your heart to this vixen?” Juliana asked, her eyes blinking rapidly as she awaited my answer with baited breath.
I swallowed and then let out a grunt and a sigh. I had tuned out the various insults that were being thrown around.
“Clarissa, would you please just relax for a minute?”
The blonde beauty looked aghast at this comment and held two hands to her heart melodramatically. “But we have a connection Alex, those kisses were magical!” she enthused.
Sure, kissing Clarissa had been nice, but we hadn’t really talked about us or what it meant, yet.
“In all honesty, Juliana, Clarissa and I are Clan… members? Mates? One of those and have gotten as far as forming a party. I needed a healer, and she offered to help me in the Dungeon. I’ve been teaching her my methods for fighting monsters, and that’s probably why she’s doing so well in the Academy.”
“Wait, Alex,” Clarissa said, suddenly turning serious. “We can’t tell her about any of this, she’s part of the Sovereignty!”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” I asked, more curious than anything else.
“Hoganna and Tasberg are not on the best of terms, and I wish your methods to remain our little secret,” Clarissa winked as she drew closer. She made a show of bending over my arm in such a way so that her cleavage was clearly visible.
I could immediately feel a warm flush spread up my neck as most of the rest of my blood fled the other direction to another body part. Juliana’s claims about Clarissa’s ‘wiles’ no longer seemed so far-fetched.
“Alex, simply say the word and I will drive this woman away from here,” Juliana said, her aura still present.
“Drive me away? Ha!” Clarissa sneered.
It was clear these two didn’t see eye to eye, but for some reason, I really wanted to change that. Juliana was my friend, and despite my rapidly developing relationship with Clarissa, I wanted something more with the both of them.
Maybe that harem idea of mine could start right here and now?
“I’ve got it!” I declared all of a sudden, causing both women to look at me with wide eyes.
“Juliana, would you like to join us for the fifth floor of the Dungeon? I’ll show you what we have been doing up until now; hopefully that will help you and your retinue advance faster.”
“Me and the heir of the Sovereignty working together,” Clarissa scoffed. “I don’t like the sounds of that, handsome.”
“I can just go alone with Juliana if you like?” I replied and as I’d expected, Clarissa quickly backtracked.
“Maybe it isn’t such a bad idea. I wouldn’t want you to go on to the fifth floor without a healer, after all,” she said.
“Are you sure about this, Alex?” Juliana asked, her angry aura fading slowly. “These methods of yours intrigue me, but to have her of all people with us…”
“Trust me,” I said.” I just ask that each of you set aside your animosity for the day and we can all learn and get better in the Dungeon. You’ve treated me well Juliana, and I want to repay that.”
She smiled and I found myself getting lost in those perfect, emerald eyes of hers before Clarissa nudged me with an elbow, an envious look on her face.
“Hmm, fine then, handsome. Let’s go to the Dungeon and I’ll promise to behave, but you had better appreciate me afterwards.”
There was still quite a bit of tension in the air between the two as we got up and headed towards the Dungeon. They weren’t going to walk side-by-side, so I wasn’t really surprised when the women each grabbed an arm, pressing close into me. Worse, or perhaps better still, Juliana grabbed a hold of my arm the same way that Clarissa always did, and I couldn’t help but grin to myself when they weren’t looking.
The first step to my harem was complete!
There wasn’t a shortage of people on the streets who, especially the men, did a double take when we walked by. Now I just had to work out how to get these two powerful women to play nice. After hearing the variety of insults they had thrown at each other, that wasn’t going to be an easy task.
But for these two devastatingly beautiful women, I would do whatever it might take to make things work.
Whatever it took.
At least Juliana’s deadly aura had disappeared. I wondered what the heck that was all about.
Maybe I had just imagined it…
14
“Extraordinary,” Juliana muttered to herself yet again as I sliced through the last Fox on our way to the fifth floor of the Dungeon.
I had thought Clarissa’s reaction to my methods was entertaining, but Juliana had taken astonishment to another level. She honestly acted like I had opened her eyes and marveled at my methods like it was the first time she had trained in the Dungeon.
Laying down on the ground to dispatch the Ravens was probably the most impressive technique I had developed, thanks to how they just wouldn’t dive low enough to hurt you. She’d honestly thought I had cast some spell beforehand; she wouldn’t believe me until she tried it out herself.
Seeing the amazed look on her face after each floor was strangely satisfying. Clarissa, on the other hand, acted like it was all so obvious that Juliana should have known these techniques already, which caused more than a little friction between the two.
As they had done on the way to the Dungeon, Juliana stayed on my right, with Clarissa to my left. I was in a great position to hear all the insults they tossed at each other in exquisite detail.
The fifth floor was the most exciting one for me, since this would be where things changed for me yet again. According to Juliana, supported grudgingly by Clarissa, this floor was populated by Lizardnoots, who actually talked!
Lizardnoots were apparently small humanoid creatures with reptilian features,
such as scales and extremely long maws. They would be the first monsters I’d had to fight that could actually fight back with more than beak, claws, or teeth. They fought with spears and swords.
I couldn’t wait!
I hoped that they could talk in the local language so I could communicate with them, but both women shot that hope down swiftly. They talked in their own rudimentary language and were quite feral.
Another big addition to the fifth floor was that at the end of it, there should be a monster boss we could fight for a good stat boost and to get better loot. I had mostly sold off all of our drops thus far, but if I got something good, I could take the rare materials to a blacksmith and have them turn it into upgraded gear.
Anything was probably better than the basic sword and leather gear I had right now, but I was mostly focused on hoarding my coin—just in case I really needed it for something special.
“Ugh,” Clarissa groaned, “Must these Lizardnoots really live in such squalor?” She wrinkled her nose and waved her hand in front of her face in distaste.
Her grimace transformed into a sly smile and she gave me a quick wink. “Perhaps these Lizardnoots are doing unsavory things in private, Alex. Could that be where this nasty smell is coming from?”
I looked around and ended up wrinkling my nose, too, every time the smell became unbearable. This had been the biggest departure in terms of environmental settings yet for a floor, and it was my least favorite so far.
This time, the entire floor felt like the inside of a volcano, with black smoke idling above us, erupting from small holes in the walls. Even with my new leather boots, the ground beneath our feet was noticeably hotter than I was used to, and the walls were caked in red seams of what looked like lava.
I really didn’t want to touch it to make sure, though.
“I think the humidity is the worst part,” I replied. “Feels like we’re in an oven, but, yeah… the smell isn’t great.”
“Here,” Clarissa said, grabbing hold of my arm. “My dress is nice and cool if you touch it here.” She tucked my arm under her breast.
“Must you really try to seduce him now, of all times?” Juliana protested with her arms crossed. “Is this appropriate behavior for a major Clan heir?”
“Oh, excuse me. I forgot you are beyond such things, for men line up in droves to court the illustrious Juliana Vos Tasberg,” Clarissa said sardonically, her smirk never slipping.
“That’s… not true!” Juliana snapped back.
“Weren’t the rumors last year that for your birthday, the line of suitors extended from the mansion’s front door all the way to the city gates?” Clarissa grinned.
Whoa, that seemed like a whole lot of people…
“And I entertained not a single one of them,” Juliana huffed. “I didn’t want to even think about suitors until after the academy.”
Clarissa’s grin widened noticeably, like she had just won the argument.
“Then I guess you aren’t after Alex’s affections, after all. More for me, I suppose,” the blonde gloated.
Juliana whirled on Clarissa, her cheeks turning from their normal peach to a deep scarlet in record time. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “I should inform you that acting like a harlot is no way to win such a man. Isn’t that right, Alex?” Juliana asked, turning to me with a coy smile, all of a sudden.
I wasn’t entirely sure how to reply when Juliana grabbed my other arm and went one step further than Clarissa had, squishing both her breasts up around the back of my arm. It felt really nice, and I was momentarily at a loss for words.
Juliana threw a smug look at Clarissa and I was left wondering what had just transpired between the two women. I’d figured there would be a bit of jealousy, but even this seemed a bit extreme—especially since we’d only known each other for a couple of weeks.
“Uhh,” I said before shaking my head. “Hey, wait, how come we haven’t seen any of these Lizardnoot monsters? We should have encountered something on this level already.”
My question at least put a cap on the ongoing feud simmering constantly between the two of them.
Clarissa responded, “I’m… not sure. We should have come across at least one pack of them, by now.”
“I have not seen any adventurers either, we usually see at least a few of them on each floor,” Juliana commented.
That was true as well. The first floor was the biggest floor, which made it harder to find anyone, unless you simply followed the green painted lines it had, but none of the other floors had that at all.
We usually passed by other adventurers at the entry and exit points between floors and occasionally a few times when exploring, but this was the first time we had gone for so long without a single one of them showing up. Normally it would be nothing of note, but combined with the lack of monsters, it set me on edge.
A shape finally appeared in the distance, and I shook both my breast-laden arms to get the women to pay attention.
“Just ahead, is that a Lizardnoot?” I asked.
“I… uh,” Clarissa rubbed her eyes. “I can’t see it properly. It’s far taller than I expected.”
Once we got close enough for some features to be visible, I was pretty perplexed at what I saw. This supposed Lizardnoot was over two meters tall and had red skin that contrasted sharply against its black sooted armor. When its face turned to glare at us, I could see sharp needle-like teeth glimmer in its mouth that made me shudder.
That, and because the face didn’t have a snout at all—it was more human, but twisted—convinced me this wasn’t what I’d been told to expect. The red eyes felt way more sinister than the ones I had seen on the Rats, or any of the other monsters we’d faced.
“Uh,” I said to the women, not taking my eyes off the thing. “That’s a lot taller than I expected for a Lizardnoot.”
There was silence for a moment. Both women had the blood drain from their face as they stared at this creature with both surprise and fright.
“Hey!” the creature bellowed. “Got some more humans here! You done yet?”
The voice was deep and had a hint of maliciousness in it, which shouldn’t have surprised me at all, since this thing looked pretty darn evil. Another one of the creatures appeared from around the corner, dragging along the body of what I knew had to be an adventurer. The leather armor was strikingly similar to my own.
I just knew this spelled trouble.
“That’s a Demon,” Juliana hissed, extending her arms forwards in preparation for a spell. “A feral one from the lower floors. It shouldn’t be here!”
“We need to leave, handsome,” Clarissa said as she took hold of my hand. “Demons are far above what we can handle.”
“What? Like an actual Demon?” I asked and looked at the creature more carefully. It did fit the bill for being a Demonic, I supposed, but even with all my RPG experience, seeing one here was quite a surprise.
Did that mean Angels or Celestial beings existed, too?
The two Demons snickered to one another, one dropping the corpse of the adventurer before approaching us.
“Demona has returned, and this planet isn’t big enough for the lot of us,” the Demon growled.
What the heck was he talking about?
Juliana decided that she didn’t want to find out as she cast a fireball spell that immediately raced through the air and crashed straight into the Demon on the left’s chest.
All I saw was that the fire winked out when the Demon smacked it to the side with his palm. The thing cackled wildly, producing a sword it had strapped to its back.
“We must retreat,” Juliana said, grabbing my other hand. “Quickly, Alex.”
Both women tugged me along as we sprinted back the way we had come. I could hear both Demons laugh as they ran after us.
“These ones are fast!” one of them cackled.
“Should put up more of a challenge than those dumb Lizardnoots!”
We had traveled fairly deeply into this floor already and
usually were able to remember which way we had come in. But now, I wasn’t even sure which way was up as we darted around one corner and then immediately turned around another, repeating the cycle over and over.
“These Demons are fast,” I huffed as Clarissa wrapped around a wall. I briefly touched my shoulder to the red veined walls, and it was as I’d thought, the walls were baking hot. I hissed in pain, as my leather armor briefly surged in heat.
I really wished my speed stat wasn’t still a paltry ‘one’, as it seemed the women were being dragged down by me.
Clarissa growled in annoyance when we reached a dead end at the end of a large cave opening. There was nowhere else to go.
“You led us to a dead end,” Juliana huffed.
“I didn’t hear you complaining along the way!” Clarissa retorted.
“Uhh, probably not the time for an argument, ladies,” I said as the Demons caught up to us.
“You take the man. I’ll handle the women personally,” the bigger Demon of the two said, leering.
“I want to take the women,” the shorter demon whined; they both glared at each other.
“Just do it or I’ll kill you too.”
“Ha! Like you could and still have enough energy to kill these humans.”
Everyone seemed to be in an argumentative mood here, and I figured that now was the perfect time to seize the initiative and strike first.
“Listen,” I said, drawing the two women closer.
“Juliana, do you have any magic that can distract our opponents at all?” I asked.
“I possess a spell that can blind a foe, but it takes a few moments to cast,” she replied, her eyes still trained on the arguing demons.
“Great, use that on the shorter Demon there, while I focus on the bigger one. We take him out and we should be able to finish his buddy soon after. Just gotta make sure they can only attack me one at a time.”
“What about me, Alex?” Clarissa asked, batting her eyelashes. “You being so commanding is dreamy.”