Chapter 116: Friendship – Part 3

Chapter 116: Friendship – Part 3 Announcement

I'll be taking a small break, just one week, this time to actually rest and get my sleep schedule back in order. I might update the Character Compendium, but I'll at least finish writing the first chapter of the new side-story I didn't have much time to work on these past few weeks.

Today is the 25th. Fo, day of Fire. The day when forges all over the world burn the hottest, so it's said to be the day of smiths. Elves don't really do smithing, though their smokehouses all take advantage of this day, making parts of the town smell strongly of elven scented logs.

Kaatohe wakes me up, encouraged by the girls to join the Ryder Cum Guzzlers. She's an okay dick-sucker, but her specialty is looking snobbish and haughty, which makes it extra satisfying when she's bent over and struggling to keep up her composure as my cock wrecks her pussy.

The vulnerable woman from yesterday is gone, and she gives me a smug smile when she notices me waking up, then she swallows it all without letting a single drop go to waste.

I pull her face forward and kiss her furry forehead. "You should start sleeping here more often," I gently suggest, the tone of my voice catching her off-guard for a split second.

"I very well may..." She stiffly replies.

Ciel suddenly hugs her from behind and rubs her face against the soft fur of her back. "You'll always be welcome among us."

Kaatohe freezes, seemingly not knowing how to react to the angel's boundless sweetness. The fact that this cat is also a woman of culture who knows how to appreciate large breasts just adds to the chaos inside her mind.

Hana takes advantage of her vulnerable state to steal a kiss from her, but she's always ready for lewdness, so she immediately responds to the sudden invasion of her mouth with her own tongue.

But then the cheeky dragonkin abruptly breaks the kiss, leaving Kaatohe hanging and wanting for more.

"You're pretty thirsty, and we have endless love to give," Hana smugly states.

"Presumptuous land-dwellers..." Kaatohe grumbles and turns her face away snobbishly.

We smile at her tsun, but we don't tease her any further than that.

My [Summoning Magic] increased by 2 (now 8+34). I'm not really sure what, exactly, triggered the double level up, but I bet it's because of [Otherworldly Summoning].

Roxanne actually learned [Alteration Magic] with two points because of yesterday. Even though she tried to suppress the level up, what she did was so intense that the skill was forcefully learned.

Krysta makes nutty chocolate brownies with a warm, creamy inside, making me squeal internally in happiness.

"These are... nuts?" Safiya questions curiously as she picks up a muffin.

"Indeed they are," Ciel softly replies as she quickly fills her plate with a selection of chocolate dishes.

"The chocolate revolution is just beginning," I cryptically state, but everyone quickly becomes too enthralled by the sweets to play along with my joke.

"This is..." Midori begins but is left speechless as she foodgasms from the supreme deliciousness of the brownie. "This is genius!"

"Indeed, it is," Osaria rather smugly replies. "Rande specifically brought a dragonkin chef from Yukiyama so that we can produce sweets like these to sell."

"It's going to rain coins over here," Nour casually states, and everyone agrees.

After breakfast, it's time for goodbyes.

Nour and his harem get their ID tablets back, though now with our seal, which will allow them to use the Imperial [Eternal Gate] Network throughout all the elven lands for free. It feels kind of nice being the one who's giving out favors instead of receiving them, for once.

"We really appreciate this, Wolf," Nour affirms with a smile as he receives his tablet.

I walk up to him and offer a handshake. "I know you have your reservations about mixing business with friendship, but we should be able to keep them separate," I assert as he returns it.

He hums softly and nods. "I admit I was quite nervous about how our meeting would go, but you've assuaged my fears and helped me calm down quite a lot."

I grin and earnestly confess, "It's because of you that I met Alissa, a woman who's stolen my heart, so it'll take something truly monumental for me to renege on our friendship."

His back stiffens as he's briefly overwhelmed with emotions, then he breaks into a mirrored grin. "For the brotherhood."

Now you're getting it.

"For the brotherhood."

I sigh as I sit down on the sofa and take in the view of the sea.

"Missing your boy lover already?" Roxanne teases with a shit-eating grin.

I turn my face away and point my nose up just like an elf would. "Hmph, bro love is something you girls wouldn't understand with your filthy, corrupted, fujoshi minds."

"Look who's talking..." Alissa retorts and brings up the memories of what I forced her to go through just yesterday.

"I never said that I wasn't corrupted," I shamelessly reply.

"He's feeling something that isn't lust, so of course, his cock would be confused," Yunia casually remarks.

"The way Wolfy treated Nour was so gentle and warm that it felt similar to how he treats Lina," Aoi adds, part innocent remark, part evil teasing influenced by Roxanne.

She's corrupting even my loyal dragon wife.

"Gih," even Gify piles on.

I just close my eyes and begin my mana circulation training. It's easier to just ignore the relentless teasing than to engage with them.

The truth is that I'm starting to understand why Oritiki wanted us to continue treating her so casually. When everyone is always showing me such a degree of respect, it creates a wall between me and everyone I meet, making things a bit lonely.

Nour's casual behavior is now quite refreshing to me, so I want to preserve it, and the similarities between both of our harems also makes it quite easy to relate with him.

I've always been a bit of a recluse, and I never had to put much effort into maintaining friendships since I could easily socialize with like-minded people in the MMORPGs I was addicted to, but now, a friend is a rare commodity, so I need to preserve what I have.

After the girls calm down, the morning goes peacefully as usual, then we have a hearty meal, and the time to conquer the Stinky Goblins dungeon finally comes.

We armor up in an instant with [Equip], then we gather in the entrance hall, where one of our mages opens a [Gate] to the dungeon for us.

The Celestial Horns have already secured the area, so on arrival, we find a few monster corpses spread out around us.

Cave monsters are quite peculiar. Aside from a few types that mimic already blind animals, like Giant Moles, they all have pretty good vision even if they might not need it for 99% of their lives. They have that sense because humanoids have that sense, and all adventurers use [Spirit Light] to explore dungeons, so dark dungeons like this one are generally disfavored by the adventurers because they need to light a beacon that clearly tells every monster within line of sight for kilometri exactly where they are.

As Lords, we need to take these things into consideration because it's our responsibility to decide if this dungeon is a good place for adventurers to train or not. Considering how "disease" is a strong theme here, which is another thing that adventurers hate, there's zero reason for us to put in the effort to maintain this dungeon and keep it from overflowing.

We're going to blaze through it until we find the core.

Oritiki lands before us, and Paraaone, her bull-headed bodyguard, lands a bit behind her, then he gives Lina a small wave.

It's quite comical how most of Lina's friends are big, burly guys.

She jerks her head to face me and blinks blankly in surprise.

"Everyone is bigger than me!" She protests through [Bind].

Just to mess with her further, I send her imagery of my thick, draconic tool stretching her little flower to the limit while I pound her ass.

You definitely love big things.

She immediately blushes and lowers her head as she silently fumes at my bullying.

"Your Highness, everyone's eager for some action," Oritiki cheerfully greets us and offers her hand.

I give her an armored handshake as I reply, "I don't want to visit this wretched dungeon again, so let's break through any and all resistance without stopping. I want to finish this dungeon in one go."

She releases my hand and nods diligently. "This will be a long dive, then?"

"Indeed. We don't know how deep it goes."

"Then I suggest that the Horns fight on foot to conserve mana."

I nod back, and she takes flight again, then starts ordering her men.

I make one final check to ensure that our group is ready, then we put on our helmets and begin our advance.

The Horns assume a wedge formation with the girls, the golems, and I at the tip of the spear, then Alcander, Silvano, and a small detachment of support court mages behind us, and a few Companions to protect the mages, not that Silvano needs protecting.

The support mages summon two light and two air elementals to keep us from catching a disease from this contaminated, stale air. This helps me quite a lot since I don't need to reduce my MP by summoning them myself.

They crash against the monster, but Hana doesn't release Lina, who in turn doesn't lose her grip on her hammer, and the whole crystal helmet protecting the Trog's head shatters like glass, though the pieces all remain stuck to its body.

As the monster staggers, the duo quickly make their retreat, and an arrow slides through the cracks and pierces one eye, making the monster furious.

"GOOOOOOOH...!" It lets out a low, rumbling roar, and the infected goblin suddenly stops in its tracks, then it jerks its body around and comes back towards us.

This makes me a bit concerned, so we make our way around the Trog to use it to block the path that the goblin is taking.

The Horns switch gears and start attacking the monster's partially exposed head like an angry swarm of bees, attacking it through the slits with their glaives or cracking the crystal helmet further.

The Trog's jaw and neck suddenly bulge, sending alarm bells ringing in all of our heads.

"[BACK]!" Oritiki orders in Reo, and they all disperse.

The Trog opens its mouth, and a thick cloud of pink mist billows out, quickly shrouding its body.

I summon five wind-Alissas, and Alcander links all the mages together with [Ritualism], then the elementals and the combined mages' will wrestle with the monster for control over the mist.

Though it might have incredible mana reserves, the Aberrant doesn't have that much "Magic Power" to compete with our numbers, so the mist is quickly dispersed, revealing that the crystal helmet has started to mend.

Alissa casts [Ignorance] on the duo, and they go in for another strike. The Horns provide cover by using their [Beam]s again to piss off the Trog, focusing on its blind side as it tries to stop them with the spiky balls.

The duo brace for impact and crash against the monster's crystal helmet, shattering it like glass again, and its skull starts to cave in.

"GUOOOOH...!" The monster cries out in pain as it releases wisps of pink mist.

It's fortunate that the cloud's aim isn't to attack because we now have to engage with the army of crystal-controlled monsters coming our way. However, we won't be able to repeat that helmet smashing maneuver so easily again, so I order Alcander to prepare a proper finisher.

The Horns dance around the Trog, boasting their coordination and speed by giving the now seemingly concussed monster nasty burn after nasty burn, but it now starts to desperately release the pink mist to heal its crystal helmet, ignoring the Horns completely.

Aoi flies like a rocket at it, a mask of stone fully protecting her face from the mist and a large chain in her hands, then she tackles its neck from behind as she quickly throws one end of the chain to its side, using magic to wrap it around its neck.

The monster tries to shake her off, but her footing remains steady, then she pulls on the chains, blocking its throat from releasing the mist and making the monster panic.

But Aoi isn't done. She takes a step back, which gives her the leverage to pull its head up, then her muscles bulge as she pulls on the chain as hard as she can and lets out a muffled roar of fury, "GROOOOOOOOH!"

The huge monster doesn't even have time to properly react because Alcander finishes the spell, and a long, thick, dragon-killer bolt shoots towards the exposed, flabby neck of the monster, striking right below its jaw, where its tongue should be.

The monster groans as it starts to stand up on its hind legs, regaining a bit of room to breathe as Aoi briefly loses her footing, but its body wasn't made for this kind of movement, so it goes down again a couple of seconds later.

And the duo comes in at the perfect time. As the monster falls, they strike right at the base of the bolt, driving it further in until the tip pokes through the top of its skull.

The monster convulses and collapses heavily on the floor, still not dead yet, but now Aoi can easily expose its neck again, and the Horns waste not a second as they split it open.

Blood flows like a river, and the will to fight gradually drains from the Crystal Trog. Then, as it enters its death throes, the onslaught of crystal-infected monsters finally comes to an end as their coordination collapses and they start to kill each other like mindless zombies.

I sigh and let the dragon return to its cage, then I clean my blood-soaked weapons and sheathe them.

As we start to relax, the effects of [Godly Language] suddenly end, and the usual dizziness of the feedback hits us, but it's considerably weaker than what we would normally expect. My little experiment of adding "conditions" to it seems to have worked, so I'll need to explore this further.

Subtly infusing [Godly Language] into my speech doesn't produce the same level of feedback, but it also doesn't have any reality-altering capabilities, so I might be able to find a good middle-ground between the two approaches.

We've earned ourselves a break, so we move far away from the slaughter and have some tea while I check for messages from the castle.

There's just news of a group of nobles that have arrived in town, and Yunia immediately recognizes their names.

"The Clown Troupe!" She suddenly exclaims, then immediately goes silent as we give her a weird look.

If that's how she calls her friends, then I wonder how she calls her enemies.

Announcement

Hall of Fame of Patrons

The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:

Prince PreownedFIN.

Prince Creamy Spinach.

Prince Owldente.

Prince Charlie Foxtrot.

Lord Andrew Meyers.

Lord Novgarod.

Lord Michale Erwin.

Lord Bakerdea.

Lord Maurice.

Lord Mattirro Draca.

Lord Fullmoon.

Lord Sean Drake.

Lord FrostyCube.

Lord Mike Bartter.

Lord Warwulfv.

Lord Jorge Franco.

Lord Khristopher Welsh.

Lord DJ.

Lord Philip.

Lord Tenebris Lupus.

Lord The Tallest Joshua.

Lord Copey Dunt.

Lord Paul Daval.

Lord Paul Daval.

Lord Bradly.

Lord AndreyUC.

Lord Tmac.

Lord Krawn.

Noble Salty Panda.

Noble Mild Fracas.

Noble Aclys.

Noble CarlBaxter.

Noble CHoobler.

Noble d3235.