Thirty-second Encounter

“Why are you naked?” (me)

Three men came in. The first to enter wore gloves, boots, and nothing else.

“I’m a grappler! Clothes just get in the way in this dungeon. As long as I’ve got lust poison protection, there’s not much danger in here.” (man 1)

“You should practice with him, Lily.” (Sam)

“Huh? You want to practice? Practice what?” (man 1)

“Well, I need practice grappling. Someone pointed out that I should be able to do better in a fight if I can grapple as well as slash and stab.” (me)

“Haha! Go and show them how it’s done, Grant!” (man 2)

After a somewhat lengthy session of grappling with each other, I finally managed to find an advantage.

“Haha, ha, how! Hah! You’re tickling me! Ha! I yield! I yield!” (Grant)

“Dang it, Grant! I lost the bet!” (man 2)

“Haha! I win!” (man 3)

“That was crazy! It’s like your touch went through all the callouses I’ve built up! I didn’t think I could still feel a touch like that!” (Grant)

“I, uh, used what is called aura?” (me)

“You have aura and used it to tickle me?” (Grant)

“Well, I didn’t want to hurt you.” (me)

“If you could tickle me, then you could have… oh, I really lost.” (Grant)

“Do you defeat the monsters in here by grappling?” (me)

“Oh, not really. I just distract them, and get them to expose their weak points to make things easier for my allies to then kill them.” (Grant)

“Can you teach me grappling?” (Sam)

“Eh? Honestly, before that, if you want to grapple, you should work on building up more muscle first. Strength is pretty important when grappling, and you really don’t look strong enough.” (Grant)

“Then could you teach me some good ways to do that?” (Sam)

“In here? I suppose you’d be limited mainly to pushups and squats. I’ll show you a few exercises.” (Grant)

I just sat on the bed watching as Sam received instruction on how to do some basic strengthening exercises. Oh, the other two look kinda bored. “There’s a bath in the back if you want to clean up and relax.” (me)

“Oh? Oh wow! This is great!” (man 3)

A few minutes later… 

“Don’t do a belly flop! Gah!” (man 3)

I hope they don’t hurt themselves in there. Listening to the two of them fooling around in the bath, and watching Sam get instructions on what he was doing right and wrong with the exercises, I eventually fell asleep. I don’t actually remember falling asleep, but I’m pretty sure the time I spent back in my old room, staring into my old bathroom mirror at my old self in disgust was a dream. I miss the internet, but I don’t miss being the old me.