Waking up’s nice. The smell’s really nice. The warmth is nice too. I really could get used to that.

  “Good morning,” Silver says, then chuckles. “Or whatever it’s called in a dungeon without a way to know which time it is.”

  Then what I did before we slept sms into me and I lower my head, not quite stifling the groan of embarrassment. That put my nose squarely between her breasts. But, really, at this point, that might be the less…intrusive? Thing I’ve done.

  “I’m sorry,” I mumbled. I have no excuses.

  “What for?” her arms tighten around me.

  “I kind of forced myself on you?”

  She ughed. “You were definitely into it, but you didn’t force anything. Actually, I have to ask. Was this really your first time?”

  I groan. “Yes.” I definitely enjoyed it, but how good can it have been for someone who’s been with other guys before.

  “That’s impressive.”

  Okay, not the reaction I was expecting. I look up. “What do you mean?” The light permeating around us is dim. Like I forgot to turn the reading mp on my desk off, but it’s too even for that.

  And we’re in a dungeon.

  “This was better than some of the ‘experienced’ guys I’ve been with.”

  I hear the quotes.

  “Really?”

  “You definitely fumbled about here and there, but you knew that and you asked how you should do it and…it was good.”

  “I don’t…” no matter how much I rack my memory, the only thing there is how good it felt.

  “Are you okay? I mean, I didn’t really feel like stopping you once you started things, but you have a girl back home.”

  I don’t have to think about it long. “It’s not like we’re engaged, or that I promised her I’d keep myself for her.” Or even said anything about wanting to be with her? Did I take for granted it would happen, or was I just waiting for the ‘right moment?’ “I think,” I continue, other things sort of falling into pces. “I was mostly using Josie, so I wouldn’t have to deal with being tempted. Anytime Brandon put himself out there for me to see, I just had to tell myself it didn’t matter if it turned me on. I wouldn’t do anything about it because I was faithful to her. It was easier that dealing with…”

  “Bad first experience?”

  I snort. “Didn’t get that far, although I fully believed that’s where it was heading. The guy put all the right hints out there for me to fill in the wrong picture and go along. He’s how all this started, really. The asshole lured me in the forest, pying on my teenage libido. Then he shoved me in a hole and left me to die.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  My chuckle is bitter. “I guess you missed my asshole comment.”

  “That’s way beyond being an asshole.”

  “Anyway, it’s pure luck I found Aaron’s corpse and was able to get his css. Oh, right. He did that hours before my choosing day. If not for Aaron, I’d have ended up cssless, and definitely wouldn’t have been able to get out of there.”

  “Cssless?”

  “Yes, if you aren’t at a node on Choosing Day, the system assigns you whoever’s css is nearest to you. If you’re in the middle of nowhere—” I shudder “—you end up cssless and are a drain on everyone around you.”

  “I don’t think—” She stops. “I’m sorry he did that to you. I’m gd you got out of it.”

  “Me too.” We’re silent for a while. “Look, I know we sort of touched on this when we kissed the other time, but—”

  “I’m not in love with you,” she replies.

  “Oh good. I mean, I’m not in love with you either. I think that once we’re out of here, I’d like to do this again, you know, with it not fueled by adrenaline. But unless you’re interested in settling down in Court, I can’t see us getting serious.”

  She chuckles. “I pn on doing a lot of adventuring before I consider settling down. But even then, and don’t get me wrong, you are a really nice guy, but I wouldn’t make the decision of if it’s with you based on our time out here.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “Does this mean you two lovebirds are done?” Helen asks, and I groan.

  “Tell me we didn’t…with her there.”

  “And just where did you think I’d go while you to had fun?”

  I groan again.

  “Please,” she says, “I had my back to you, and I was your age too, you know. I’ve had my fun in pces I probably shouldn’t and with more people around than considered appropriate.”

  I groan more and Silver pats my back.

  “Please don’t tell me you too have done stuff with people watching.”

  She chuckles. “You know that reputation bards have, that we’ll sleep with anything that will just look in our direction?”

  I’m already groaning.

  “It’s not entirely undeserved.”

  I’m going to burst on fire.

  “But if it helps,” she says. “I’ve kept it to sentient guys.”

  “It doesn’t,” I mumble, my face pressed above her breasts. She pats my back again.

  “How about I get us a fire and you practice your cooking skill?” Helen asks.

  “Did you stand guard all…night?” I ask, untangling myself from Silver and pulling my pants to me. I don’t care what she saw or heard us do. I’m not standing up naked with her watching.

  “I closed the door, made sure the other one didn’t open outward and lied down against it. I figured creatures in here aren’t smart enough to crack the puzzle that locks the entrance.”

  “Are you sure it locked when you closed the door?” Silver asks. She’s much more casual with standing to get dressed.

  “No. But that’s how locks work, and I wasn’t staying up while you two got your beauty sleep.”

  “Sorry,” I mumble.

  “Stop it, Dennis.” She chuckles. “You got carried away in the moment. It happens. Fuck knows Brandon’s told enough stories of him and some guy in whatever party he was exploring with getting to it after a hard enough fight.”

  “Except I’m not him. I’d like to think I have more of a head on my shoulder.”

  “You’re a teen out for his first adventure,” she replies. “It was going to happen at some point. Just be happy it’s with Silver and not my brother.”

  I snort. I made it clear enough to him that wasn’t happening. Even with knowing how fun this is, and yes, I’m kind of curious to know how it’s like with a guy, the idea of doing it with Brandon? Yeah, it’s not even interesting.

  Once dressed and with the fire going, I set to making what turns out to be more a thin broth with hard pieces of meat in it than anything resembling a stew or a soup, but no one compins, and it’s filling.

  The door opens with a solid pull, more the resistance of stone against stone than anything meant to prevent us from leaving. And I have to stop at what waits for us on the other side.

  In the middle of a room no more than four meters on all sides is a dispy dummy wearing a set of leather armor.

  System Query: Arcadian Leather Armor set, Quality: Excellent, Type: Armor

  The leather armor favored by the warriors of Arcadia, made of the leather of the Wild Thrumbor Beast. Prized for its durability, flexibility, and lightweight.

  Perception Check Successful

  Arcadian armor is designed to be more effective when worn as a set, instead of individual pieces.

  I grin as I get a notification that my perception skill went up to twenty-two.

  Beyond it is another door.

  “So…trap?” I ask.

  “Or the room’s reward?” Silver offers, although she sounds uncertain. “Big fights have those, right?”

  I’m looking at Helen for her opinion even as I realize she’s not going to know anything about it. The roll of the eyes confirms it.

  “Okay. You two stay by the door.” I arm myself. The dummy doesn’t have a sword or a shield, but I am not taking for granted it can’t just make those appear.

  “The armor’s magical,” Helen says after words that annoyingly slip between yers in my brain.

  “Great,” I grumble. “Any chance you’re willing to try and get more information on the magic?”

  “Don’t get your hopes up,” she replies.

  I poke the dummy’s chest with the tip of my sword, and nothing happens.

  Helen mumbles something, and man, is that irritating. How do people who adventure with magic users get used to that? Will I manage to tune it out at some point? Make it background noise?

  The helmet isn’t attacked, so I use my sword to flick it off the dummy. It nds on the floor and stays there.

  I pause before picking it up. “Either of you know anything about cursed objects being found in dungeons?”

  “I don’t think those would be given out as rewards,” Silver says.

  Helen curses and starts mumbling again.

  “So if we accept this is a reward, it’s safe?”

  “Don’t put the thing on,” Helen warns, interrupting her casting. “At least give me the time to get this working.”

  I step away from the helmet, and when a few more pokes don’t produce results, I go look at the door so I won’t be closer to Helen and be able to make out the magic she’s mumbling.

  It’s very much like the one we entered, in that it’s stone, but the hinges are on the other side.

  I lean against the wall next to it and wait.

  Helen curses three more times, then excims, “Yes!”

  “You got something?” Silver asks.

  “It doesn’t have negative magic,” she replies, some of her triumph taken away by her panting.

  I can’t hide my disappointment that’s all she got. “Can you get anything more?” I ask tentatively.

  “How long to you want to stay here?” she replies sourly. “I don’t think you get how hard information magic is. And I only have magic detection in that field, so I start at a big disadvantage. I’m going to have to learn, or figure out, a lot more spell there before the cumutive bonuses make this easy.”

  “Cumutive bonuses?” I look at Silver, but she shakes her head.

  “Have you ever wondered why magic users tend to focus in one field of magic?”

  “I figured it was how those csses worked. Your abilities unlock a field. Like I’ll get healing magic once I take the Second Wind ability.”

  She shakes her head. “Yes, there is an aspect of abilities letting us build bonuses in one field, but beyond that, our spells build on themselves. Simply, the more spells in one field you have, the easier to use spells in that field is, in my case, the easier it is to have an attempt succeed.”

  “But don’t you have like four different fields?” Silver asks.

  Helen grins. “I have ambition.”

  “Alright, so taking the armor off the dummy isn’t going to cause problem?”

  “I didn’t say that. The armor itself doesn’t have magic that will impact the wearer negatively. There is no magic on the dummy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not trapped.”

  I take out rope. “Silver, take one end and go on the other side. On my signal, we cross the room and trip the dummy.”

  “And hope the trap’s not a fireball?” she replies, taking it.

  “No magic,” Helen says.

  Silver looks at the ceiling. “No burning oil falling down on us, then?”

  “Are there a lot of stories where that happens?” We move away.

  “Not that I know, but I wouldn’t go by them, anyway.”

  “Helen, can you do something if burning oil falls from the ceiling?”

  “If that happens and we survive it, we’ll have to seriously consider that we’re outcssed.”

  With a nod to Silver, we hurry to the other side. There’s barely any resistance when the rope catches on the dummy’s feet and it topples. Parts break off and the armor pieces scatter.

  “I guess it was the reward for the fight,” Helen says, smug.

  I collect the pieces and put them in my inventory, where each takes a slot, until they are all in, and they the set is in one.

  Then I switch to my normal clothing.

  “What are you doing?” Silver asks.

  I move the set to my equipment tab, repcing my damaged armor. “Putting on the best armor I can.”

  “But we don’t know what it does.”

  “It’s not going to hurt me, right?”

  Helen shakes his head.

  “But that doesn’t mean it’s going to help you.”

  “Magic that doesn’t hurt me had to help in some way. Helen can keep trying to learn what the magic is when we’re resting, but otherwise, that st fight proved we aren’t properly equipped. So I’m going to make use of everything the dungeon provides. I suggest you both do when we come across appropriate equipment.”

  Silver’s not pleased, but she nods.

  I put my shoulder to the door and push it open. “We continue like before. Kill at a distance as much as possible.”

  Kindar

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