Cauldron of Ghosts 012 (Patreon)

[LEVEL UP! The Player has reached Level Thirty!]

The words dominated Taylor’s vision as the final boss of the latest dungeon she’d undertaken with her illicit raiding group finally finished dying. The fourth such dungeon, as it happened, and the most difficult one yet. And not just when it came to the enemies, though they hadn’t been easy to deal with either, even for her. Not least because she had still neglected to get any decent armor, relying on her speed and her Harvested abilities to keep her safe.

Something that she was now regretting, thanks to the injuries she was now sporting, but she’d been making quite a lot of money between her quests and these -under-the-table raids. More than enough money to provide herself with a set of custom -and it would have to be custom, very few people were capable of doing what she could do, and standard store-bought equipment just couldn’t keep up- armor if necessary.

[Player now has access to the System Store!]

[Player can now purchase items using Gold!]

[Player can now convert non-System currency to Gold, and vice versa, at a rate of 2-to-1!]

Well, that was useful, and very conveniently timed. She’d have to take a look at all of that when she had the opportunity, because she was willing to bet that anything she could get from The System would be more powerful than all but the most expensive, legendary, and finely-crafted non-System items.

Anyway, returning to her previous train of thought, this was the most difficult one yet for several reasons, and one of those reasons was the fact that she was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the group of travelling Hunters. There was something off about them, something she couldn’t quite put a name on and something that her enhanced senses couldn’t entirely decipher, and while she might have doubted that suspicion by the third time they’d worked together without anything bad happening, she could tell that Sarah felt the same way.

A big part of the issue was how much they seemed to…waffle, from one side to the other. They’d go from being flirtatious, casual, and comfortable -very comfortable. Taylor was more than familiar with how battle could build bonds fast and furious, but she still knew things about the group’s personal lives that she never would have wanted to know- with the two of them, to the opposite of the spectrum. Standoffish, cold, even bluntly impersonal and distant. And then there was the way they’d let their eyes linger just a moment too long, the questions they’d ask. Always fairly benign small-talk, ‘girl-talk’ even, asking about their interests and if they had someone special at home, and often with well-disguised lust or carnal interest in their eyes.

Which Taylor was fine with, used to even at this point. She was beautiful, she’d come to accept that fact thanks to Amy and Paige and plenty of random admirers in the streets. She’d lost count of the number of people who’d tried to give her their numbers at this point, men and women alike, and before they’d left the Patron’s Palace during their…not-date, Paige had helped her navigate dealing with the large number of subs and switches that had made an effort to introduce themselves to her. So she was -as arrogant as it made her sound- well aware of the fact that she was extremely desirable and quite used to people looking at her with that self-same desire in their eyes.

But when it came to this group, that same lust and attraction felt like it had an altogether different edge to it.

It felt calculating, somehow. Not the appreciative once-over of someone who thought she was attractive and might want to act on that, but something more measuring. More assessing. Like she was a piece of…of equipment that they were considering purchasing rather than a person they might want to date, or fuck, or even just befriend.

She’d mentioned as much to Sarah after their second raid together, in the privacy of an isolated neighborhood as they waited for the RIdeOns, and the Ranger’s face had gone tight and uncomfortable in a way that told Taylor she wasn’t imagining things.

“It’s the way Faith looks at us when she thinks we’re not paying attention, for one thing.” the blonde archer had confirmed, running a hand a bit anxiously over the hilt of one of her daggers in a gesture of self-reassurance. “Its…greedy, I guess is the best word I have for it. And its not because we’re hot, or at least not just because we’re hot, and its not just because they want our gear either. If they were lizards, they’d already have tried to kill us by now. Something else must be going on, and I may not know what it is, but I’m not going to trust them as far as I could throw Vince.”

Taylor had agreed, and while each had admitted to being very tempted to never associate with the group again, they’d stuck it out. The money was good -great, even- and the delves were well within the group’s abilities, even if there were often injuries. Until they had more than just vague discomfort and creepy looks, giving up good money being practically thrown in their laps wasn’t something either of them was willing to do, not when they were already having to sneak around and do gates illegally as it was. Besides, Sarah had admitted -and Taylor had agreed- that she couldn’t let the mystery lie. Whatever the group was up to, whoever they were and where ever they were from, she wasn’t willing to bury her head in the sand and pretend that there was nothing to see or to find. Especially not if they were some sort of lizards. Taylor would never be able to live with herself if she ran off to save herself and Sarah -or anyone else- got hurt as a result of her ignorance or uninvolvement.

“Hey, broody. You good? You didn’t pick up a bad hit in there somewhere, didya?” Sarah’s voice, and finger, prodded her from her thoughts, and Taylor rolled her eyes as she swatted the girl’s finger away from her ribs, giving the smirking girl a look. The blonde was entirely unrepentant, of course, as she always was, but the concern was real, and Taylor huffed as she shook her head in denial.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just thinking.” she assured, before eyeing the tears in the slender girl’s armor and frowning in concern, though she could see unblemished skin -smooth, pale- through those same rents. “How about you? Looks like you got hit at least a few times there. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, just a couple of hits. Felt more like the thing was trying to strip me down than do any real damage to me, to be honest with you.” Sarah waved a hand dismissively, sounding supremely unconcerned.

“Seriously?” Taylor couldn’t resist the urge to deadpan, and Sarah gave her a smirk and a shameless shrug, glancing over to where the rest of the group had started gathering the mana crystals, Jake barking orders all the while as he was wont to do.

“Yeah, well, monster behavior can be pretty weird, right? Maybe it liked what it saw, you know? Though if it was horny, I’d have thought it would go for you instead of me.” she quipped, and Taylor glanced back over at her an arched an eyebrow as her System told her that the girl was half-serious, at least in respect to how she ranked their respective beauty. It wasn’t quite low self-esteem, and it wasn’t quite false humility either, but something awkwardly in between.

It also told her that just letting things stay silent and unresponsive was not the best move she could make at this particular moment.

“Bullshit.” she said flatly, watching the faint flush creep up Sarah’s neck at the word, her eyes widening slightly as she shifted a bit in place. “You’re gorgeous, Sarah, and you know it. So don’t go blushing and acting shy when I compliment you.”

Sarah’s mouth opened, then closed again, and for a moment the usually sly and playful archer looked almost as flustered as Amy did on her worst days. It was, Taylor decided, a genuinely delightful sight, and she didn’t even try to resist the urge to both take note of how cute a look it was on her, and how best to make sure it happened again.

“I—shut up.” the other girl managed eventually, crossing her arms and looking anywhere but at Taylor’s face, though the effect was somewhat ruined by the way the corners of her mouth were twitching upward despite her attempt to pout. “You’re not supposed-you can’t just say stuff like that!”

“What, complimenting a friend?” Taylor asked, all false innocence and wide eyes, and Sarah shot her a look that was somewhere between exasperated and something warmer, something that made Taylor’s chest do a funny little flip and made everything feel a bit less like a joke that it had been a few moments before. “I’m just saying it like it is. You’re pretty, you’re funny, and you’re good at your job. Nothing wrong with pointing that out.”

“There’s plenty wrong with it when you say it like that.” Sarah muttered, finally risking a glance at Taylor’s face, and whatever she found there made her flush deepen rather than fade. “You’re going to give a girl ideas if you keep talking like that, and since there’s no way that you’re single, maybe you ought to keep your sweet tongue under control…”

“What ideas would those be, hmm?” Taylor asked, practically purring the words, letting a bit more heat creep into her voice than was strictly fair, watching with no small satisfaction as Sarah’s flush spread down past her collar. She should stop at this point, probably, but the System was telling her Sarah’s interest was at least semi-genuine, and the other girl was both beautiful and enjoyable to be around. “And who said anything about me being single? Maybe I’m not, but what has that got to do with anything. Maybe I’ve got room for one more.”

“You’re—?! Okay, no, we are not doing this right now. We are literally standing next do a dead monster, in a dungeon full of mana crystals and a group of people who give me the creeps, and you’re flirting with me.” Sarah pointed an accusing finger at her, though the effect was rather ruined by the way she wasn’t actually backing away or trying to push Taylor into doing so. “Priorities, Morrigan. Get us safely out of the dungeon, get us paid, then flirt with me. In that order.”

“Fine, fine.” Taylor relented, though the smirk didn’t leave her face as she straightened and glanced over at where the others were still gathering mana crystals, Jake’s voice carrying over the sound of the crystal-harvesting tools. “But don’t think I’m going to forget about this conversation. I’ve got a good memory, good taste, and an even better sense of timing.”

“Oh, I’m sure.” Sarah rolled her eyes, but there was no real annoyance in it this time, and Taylor resisted the sudden urge to pinch the blonde girl somewhere. Her hip, perhaps. Or someplace…softer. But she resisted, in no small part due to the environment, but also because she was actually feeling a bit shocked by just how comfortable she was feeling flirting with another girl. Maybe she shouldn’t be, given what she’d done with Amy, and with Paige for that matter, but she was a bit shocked all the same. Shocked at how easy it was, how comfortable she was doing it, how satisfied she felt at Sarah’s clear enjoyment and interest, and definitely shocked at just how quickly and easily she was getting aroused as she imagined her three girls -and there she was, claiming Sarah as her own so casually, even in her subconscious- in all manner of positions.

It was absurd, she didn’t even know the ranger’s real name, they’d never done anything together outside of a dungeon, and they’d had very few conversations that didn’t revolve around hunting or their mutual hesitance in regards to the trustworthiness of the group that they were running with. They couldn’t afford to give anything away, after all, that might lead back to their real identities, criminals that they currently technically were.

Not that either of them was likely to turn the other into the cops, of course, and risk some mutually-assured destruction, but there were other concerns to be had there, and they had only known each other for a couple of weeks. Fighting to survive in dungeons and watching each other’s backs in other circumstances could build trust and a relationship fairly quickly, certainly, but there were limits.

Still, limits or not, she wasn’t going to pretend the interest wasn’t there, on both sides. Filing those thoughts away for later consideration, she gestured towards the rest of the party.

“Come on. Let’s go help them finish up. Sooner we’re done, sooner we’re both getting paid and getting out of here.”

Sarah fell into step beside her, and the two of them made their way over to where Jake was directing the harvesting efforts, mana crystals glinting and glittering like rainbowed stars in the dim light of the dungeon and the dancing brightness of their torches. Taylor bent down beside a particularly large deposit, broken free from the rocks by Vince’s efforts, and grunted sharply as she hefted it. God, she couldn’t wait to have her own full Party, made up of people that knew about her System and were hers to some degree or another. Then she could just start throwing everything in her inventory and be done with it, instead of hauling around rock and stone and crystal like the weakling she’d been before the Double Dungeon.

The next hour passed in a haze of aching muscles and careful vigilance, Taylor’s senses stretched thin as she dedicated no small amount of her focus to monitoring the movements and body language of her temporary allies. Taking note of every time Faith’s gaze lingered a fraction too long, every time Cory murmured something too quiet to catch to Max, every time Vince walked behind her…it had her fingers twitching with the subconscious need to wrap around the comforting hilt of a blade. Sarah wasn’t much better, moving with the tense shoulders and abrupt movements of someone expecting a knife between the shoulder blades at any moment, and her usual easy -unceasing!- banter was reduced to nothing more than a handful of remarks that were nowhere near as clever as they were normally wont to be.

By the time the last of the crystal veins had been mined out and packed up for removal, the deadline of the gate’s closure was racing towards them with rather worrisome speed, and with that decreasing of time came a subsequent increase in tension. As they approached the shimmering outline of the gate, the exit to the safety of the outside world, she knew this was it. If something was going to happen -an ambush, a betrayal, some ugly and cruel reveal of whatever all those looks meant- then it was going to happen now, and as she waited to step through the gate she let her hands rest every so casually on her hips and tilted her head down ever so slightly. By all appearances, a tired young woman catching her breath and not paying much attention to those around her. A casual display of vulnerability, a juicy piece of bait dangling freely.

But it was bait that no one took.

Nothing happened.

The group just…waited for her to ‘catch her breath’ then led the way through the gate.

Real world, real light, real noise. The dim bustle of the extraction lot on the other side of the gate greeted them, the same nondescript delivery vans that they always used for these under-the-table jobs, and Taylor kept her senses stretched thin as she stepped through, looking for some sort of ambush, some sort of treachery.

But nothing happened there, either.

Jake was already directing the transfer of the mana crystals to the various buyers’ vehicles, calling out weights and counts with the same brisk efficiency he always showed when it came to this sort of thing, and Vince and Max were hauling gear with easy, unbothered movements. Certainly nothing that seemed particularly furtive. Sabrina caught Taylor’s eye and gave her a warm, easy smile, waggling her fingers in a little wave that seemed entirely genuine, and Faith was busy counting out cash from a battered lockbox with Cory looking over her shoulder, the two of them bickering good-naturedly about whether they’d shorted someone on the last split.

That was it.

No knives. No ambush. No sudden turn of hostile faces.

Just... a job wrapping up, same as it always did.

Taylor exchanged a glance with Sarah, and the archer’s raised eyebrows told her everything she needed to know about her thoughts: the other girl was just as thrown as she was.

“Hey, you two!” Jake called out, jogging over with a wide, easy grin once the last crate had been loaded and secured. He clapped a hand on Taylor’s shoulder, entirely companionable, and she had to consciously stop herself from tensing at the contact even as she staggered slightly from the blow. “Good work in there. Seriously, that fight with the boss would’ve gone way worse without you two watching our flanks. We should do this again sometime.”

“Yeah, definitely.” Vince agreed, as the rest of the group moved to join the three of them, all smiles and warmth and relaxation. “We’ve been a lot of places, run with alot of people. Not to many of them have held up or done as well as you guys have. Most people trying to sneak into gates aren’t usually as competent as you two.”

“That means a lot, coming from a group with your experience, but all this is sounding pretty final. You guys moving on?” Taylor said, keeping her voice easy and warm even as some part of her brain kept scanning the lot for anyone reaching for a weapon, anyone circling behind them. Paranoia, apparently, wasn’t going to die quietly just because the evidence in front of her kept refusing to cooperate.

“Yes. We’re leaving this area for a while. We have jobs lined up two states over, and who knows where we’ll end up from there?” Faith confirmed, holding out a bundle of cash for each of them with an almost wistful, dreamy smile.

“Which is a damn shame, this is a nice area and you two are solid help.” Sabrina sighed, shaking her head a bit in disappointment. “Unfortunately, it wouldn’t do to be in the same place for too long. So I guess we’ll just have to come find you if we’re ever back in the area.”

“That’d be great.” Taylor said as she took her cash, and found that she actually meant it, some of the tightly-wound tension in her shoulders finally starting to unspool now that it seemed they weren’t about to be slaughtered and have their corpses tossed back through the gate as it closed. “You know how to reach us.”

“We do.” Jake agreed, hefting the now-empty crate onto one shoulder with a grunt. “Seriously, though. You two take care of yourselves, and if you come across anyone as kickass as you are that wants to make cash on the downlow, bring them around next time. Could do twice as many gates and get twice as much cash.”

“Oh, and speaking of cash, we gave you guys a little bonus, just as a thank you. You sure as hell earned it, every damn penny.” Max finished, smirking slightly as both girls automatically glanced down at their bundles and realized that they were, in fact, half-again larger than they usually were. “Anyway, best of luck to you, girls. We’ve got to hit the road.”

And so they went.

With hugs from Sabrina and Faith, a fist-bump from Cory, and a firm handshake apiece from Jake, Vince, and Max, the group loaded into their RV and, with a final chorus of waves and well-wishes, pulled out of the lot and disappeared towards the evening traffic.

Just like that.

Taylor stood there for a long moment, watching the taillights fade, deeply bemused by the lack of disaster, before huffing a soft sigh and turning her attention to Sarah.

“Well.” Sarah said, drawing the word out as she stared at the empty stretch of asphalt where the RV had been. “That was...anticlimactic.”

“I was fully expecting to have to fight our way out of here.” Taylor admitted, running a hand through her hair and feeling a bit sheepish about it now that the moment had well and truly passed without incident. “Or, I don’t know, get followed home. Something. Not just...a wad of cash and some hugs and a ‘see you around.’”

“Right? I had a whole plan for what I was going to do if Vince tried to grab me! Very elegant, it was. Involved a knee to a very sensitive part of his body. Repeatedly, if necessary.”

“Devastating. I’m sure he’d have never recovered.” Taylor deadpanned, and Sarah snorted, shoving her shoulder lightly.

“Damn right he wouldn’t have. I’d have cut his throat once he went down.” She sobered a bit after a moment, tucking the wad of cash into a hip pouch and glancing around the empty lot one more time, brow furrowed. “I don’t get it, though. Weeks of weird looks, cryptic little comments, that whole vibe of being sized up like meat or ignored outright, and then...nothing. They just left. Like we were normal people they’d worked with a few times and were sad to see the back of.”

“I agree, it’s weird. But, they’re gone now. We don’t have to worry about them again if we don’t want to. And hell, maybe we never needed to worry about them in the first place. That goodbye certainly didn’t feel particularly sketchy.” Taylor shrugged, before checking her phone as it chimed insistently and grimacing. “Mmh. I’ve got to go, I’m meeting a friend, and if I don’t head out soon I’ll be late.”

“Your girlfriend, you mean. One of them, since you’re a player.” Sarah prodded, physically and verbally alike, and Taylor did pinch her this time. On the hip, of course, she wasn’t an unrestrained pervert, she would never pinch another girl’s ass without some sort of invitation. Even that earned her a swatted hand, of course, and she grinned at the blushing pout Sarah gave her. “And a handsy pervert, apparently.”

“I wouldn’t say that, either of them.” Taylor protested virtuously, placing a hand over her heart with an expression that implied butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. “A player would be a cheater, which I’m certainly not. I’d never keep those sorts of secrets from anyone I’m interested in, and really I’d prefer that all of the people I cared about were friends and cared for one another as well.”

“Hmph. We’ll see about that.” Sarah muttered, her eyes searching Taylor’s own -to see if she was telling the truth, Taylor knew, and she hoped her sincerity was clear. She might not have intended to start pulling Sarah into the odd little family she was building for herself, but she didn’t -wouldn’t- regret it either. Amy wouldn’t argue, and she doubted Paige would either, given she was already quite agreeable at the idea of that sort of relationship.

Of course, Paige seemed quite agreeable about pretty much everything when it came to sex, which was one reason Taylor was forcing her to sit on her hands and make sure of her feelings before they so much as kissed. She really did want to kiss the girl, though, especially when she thought about…

Soft lips pressed themselves against her cheek, near the corner of her mouth, and she blinked in surprise as she watched a scarlet Sarah spin on her heel and start to power-walk away.

“Hey! You don’t get to just—that’s not fair, running away right after that!” Taylor called after her, laughter warming her voice even as her fingers rose, almost involuntarily, to touch the spot where Sarah’s lips had been.

Sarah didn’t stop, though the tips of her ears were visibly red even from this distance, and she raised one hand in a backward wave without turning around, flipping Taylor off with the other in a gesture that was somehow more affectionate than insulting given the way her shoulders were shaking with barely-restrained laughter.

“Don’t complain when people turn the tables back on you, flirty!” the blonde shouted back over her shoulder as she retreated with ‘dignity’ and alacrity. “Have a good night! We’ll talk on Jangle! Byeeee!”

Taylor watched her go, still grinning like an idiot, before shaking her head and pulling up the RideOn app on her phone. A few taps had a car scheduled to pick her up in ten minutes, which gave her just enough time to shoulder her gear bag and start the walk toward the pickup point at the edge of the lot.Her phone buzzed before she’d gone twenty feet.

Sarah: ok that was embarrassing. pretend it didn’t happen,

Taylor: Absolutely not. I’m framing the memory. Possibly commissioning some nice art. Not every day I get a kiss from a cute girl just because she felt like it.

Sarah: i hate you.

Taylor: no you don’t.

Sarah: shut up

Sarah: this doesn’t mean anything

Sarah: i was just relieved we didn’t get murdered ok

Taylor: Mmhmm. Sure. Relief kisses. That’s a totally normal thing people do.

Sarah: yes.

Sarah: exactly.

Sarah: glad we agree.

Taylor: We agree that you like me. Yes.

There was a long pause before the little typing indicator appeared, vanished, appeared again, then finally settled into a single terse message.

Sarah: goodnight morrigan.

Taylor laughed under her breath, tucking her phone back into her pocket and waiting for her ride. She had a little date with Amy planned, and at least part of that date would be mentioning Paige to her. The other girl was, much like Paige -for all that she was rather less trained, which was just as arousing in it’s own way as Paige’s expertise- was submissive as hell, and would thanks to the System go along with just about anything Taylor asked her for, but they were still going to have a proper discussion like adults, without Amy being in her Party and thus hopefully remain uninfluenced by anything…direct.

She had a hell of a line to straddle, but straddling it was exactly what she was going to do.

#########################################################################

Two hours later, she was the one being straddled, back in the same forest clearing she’d saved Paige in -and had Amy kneel to her for the first time- with her healer in her arms. Her back was against tall, broad rock, Amy’s weight was settled in her lap -she’d claimed that lap the instant they’d secured this bit of privacy- with her mouth hot against Taylor’s throat as she moaned and sighed. Moaned and sighed as a result of not just the very heavy petting and submissive affirmations they’d shared and that she’d voiced over the course of the last forty-five minutes, but also from the slow, rhythmic squeezing of her ass that Taylor was now subjecting her to.

Not that she would ever dream of complaining, of course.

“Mmh, you’re being so good for me tonight, aren’t you?” Taylor murmured against her girlfriend’s hair, enjoying the soft and happy sound Amy made, the nodding in agreement. “And so eagerly as well. Did you miss me, babygirl?”

“Mm-hmm.” Amy mumbled against her skin, punctuating the agreement with a soft, needy little roll of her hips that wasn’t remotely subtle, practically purring as Taylor responded by squeezing her again. “Every single day since I saw you, every hour since I talked to you. Missed you so much, thought about you the whole shift.”

“Poor thing.” Taylor kissed the crown of her head, feeling the way Amy melted a little further into her at the affection, the praise, before her wandering hands slipping underneath Amy’s waistband to grip her ass directly, drawing a soft squeal from her lover’s throat. “Working so hard, thinking about me the whole time. That’s not very professional of you, is it, Miss Dallon?”

“N-no, not professional at all.” Amy admitted breathlessly, tilting her head to give Taylor a kiss, shivering when Taylor’s tongue delved past her lips briefly before withdrawing so that she could keep speaking. “I healed a dozen people today and didn’t think about anything but you the entire time, ma’am. My attending asked if I was feeling alright.”

“And what did you tell her?”

“That I was fine, obviously.” Amy huffed, though the effect was somewhat undermined by the way her hips rolled again, chasing the pressure of Taylor’s palms. “I couldn’t exactly say ‘sorry, I’m just distracted because I’m imagining my domme-slash-girlfriend yanking on my hair while she sits on my face’, could I?”

“Fair point. Probably would’ve gotten you sent home for the day…or stuck in a very awkward conversation. Though you’d best believe I’ll be remembering that little mental image” Taylor chuckled, low and warm and husky, feeling Amy shiver against her at the sound of it reverberating through her chest as her fingers quested teasingly deeper into Amy’s shorts. But she could feel the faint tremor building in the smaller girl’s frame, the way her breath had started coming a bit too fast, a bit too shallow, and the way her weight on Taylor’s chest had shifted from cuddling to something a bit heavier.

“Hey, there. You’re getting a little shaky.” Taylor said, softer now, one hand leaving it’s place to glide up Amy’s spine to comb her hair gently. “Are you okay? Do you need a minute?”

“I just…I need to cool off for a moment, that’s all. Otherwise, tonight is going to go a little bit differently, and that’s not happening for the first time until we have a big bed.” Amy reassured her, nuzzling a bit closer, almost curling up as she rested against Taylor’s breasts, and the more dominant half of the pair didn’t even try to restrain the expression that rose as a result of the implication, the statement inherant in the words.

Well, that was certainly something to look forward to, wasn’t it? A bed, unhurried time, no risk of some jogger stumbling across them in the dark. Taylor pressed a kiss to Amy’s temple and let her hand settle at the small of her back instead, content to just hold her while she caught her breath, and used the lull to finally pull up the notification she’d been ignoring since the dungeon.

[LEVEL UP! The Player has reached Level Thirty!]

[Rewards: +6 Stat Points (Unallocated), 1x Instanced Dungeon Key (Raid), Access to System Store!]

[Party Members with a Loyalty Index of Loyal or Higher can now access the System Store!]

Mmh, not bad, especially the System Store being available to her Party members. She hadn’t seen that earlier, she’d missed it during the brief glance at the Notification back in the dungeon. And more stat points were always good, and she spent a moment considering it before allocating them, taking in her new character sheet with satisfaction once she had.

Name: Taylor Hebert

Class: Not Applicable

Active Title: Porter Supreme (+50% Carry Capacity, +15% resource harvesting efficiency)

Level: 30

HP: 2650/2650

MP: 2250/2250

STR: 38

DEX: 38

CON: 36

INT: 32

WIS: 32

CHR: 50 (40 Base + 10 from The Circlet of the Fairy Queen)

LUK: 40

Available Stat Points: 0

Available Skill Points: 0

Good numbers, all things considered, especially given how little she’d actually been able to grind the exp that she needed to level up. Unfortunately for her, rescuing damsels in distress, seducing them, or having heart-to-heart chats with them when they were feeling sad and lonely weren’t qualifying challenges by The System’s rules. Huffing a soft laugh to herself and scratching Amy’s scalp lightly when her sub made an inquiring sound, she turned her attention to the item notification next, curious despite herself.

[New Item Acquired: Instanced Dungeon Key (Raid) x1] [Description: A shimmering, rune-etched key that opens a gateway to a high-difficulty Instanced Raid Dungeon. Requires a minimum Party size of three (3) to activate. Rewards scale with Party size, performance, and Loyalty Index. WARNING: Raid-tier dungeons possess significantly higher threat levels than standard Instanced Dungeons. Proceed with caution! WARNING: Raid Keys are SECRETS, with name and information provided only when the party has entered! Plan accordingly!]

Interesting. Enticing. A key with no name, no warning of what lay behind the door until she was already committed to walking through it, until it had already shut behind her. Reckless, probably, to even consider using something like that without more information, but then again, most of her life since the Double Dungeon had been an exercise in calculated recklessness. And the reward scaling with party size and Loyalty Index was tempting in a way that made her fingers itch with the urge to gather her people together and go find out.

She’d need at least three. Herself, obviously, and then...

She considered who she could call on.

Amy, she knew, would come without question. Would insist on it, probably.

Paige would do the same, but…for all that she was Awakened, it was obvious to Taylor that she wasn’t a fighter. She didn’t move like one, she didn’t have the presence of an experienced dungeon-diver. She certainly wasn’t going to pull her into something like this without, at the very least, seeing just what she was capable of.

Especially not if Amy’s healing was throttled like it had been the last time they’d done this together. Which it shouldn’t, their levels were much closer to each other and this was a raid, not a simple dungeon, but she wouldn’t risk Paige’s life like that.

Sarah…she liked Sarah, cared about her, but she wasn’t ready to reveal the System to her yet.

If Rose was here, that would settle things, but…

“Ma’am? Taylor? You’re frowning, what’s wrong?”

Amy’s voice broke her from her considerations, and she blinked, giving the concerned brunette a wry smile.

“Sorry, baby. I…” she hesitated for a moment, before deciding honesty was the better part of valor. “I hit level thirty today, and one of the rewards I got was a key to another Instance. A raid, this time. It won’t even open the Gate unless the party has three people. I thought about Paige…”

“Vicky!” Amy half-shouted, and Taylor flinched and actually looked around, wondering if the beautiful blonde bruiser had found them somehow. When she didn’t see anyone there, she looked back at Amy -who was now blushing fiercely in a way that had nothing to do with their previous, mutual arousal- and arched a curious and censorious eyebrow.

“Want to explain yourself, lovely? At a more pleasant volume, maybe?” she asked mildly, deepening that blush, and Amy nodded.

“I…I think we should bring Vicky. We can trust her, she’ll never break a promise that she made to me, so if I ask her to keep it quiet, she will. She’s a good fighter, too, and has plenty of experience. I…I think she’d work really well in your Party, ma’am. I’d like us to bring Vicky.” she paused for a moment. “Please?”

Taylor didn’t respond immediately, mulling over the suggestion silently instead for a long moment, somewhat surprised -though perhaps only briefly, Vicky was Amy’s sister after all- at the eager earnestness of the request/suggestion. On the one hand, she barely knew the other girl, they’d only spoken a few times and hadn’t really hung out at all, so that was a bit of a detriment to bringing her to something like this.

On the other hand…on the other hand, it was Vicky. Blonde, brash, gorgeous Vicky. All long legs, beautiful bust, infectiously cheerful and, apparently, had waxed eloquently more than once to Amy about Taylor’s abs.

“I mean...I’m not opposed, exactly.” she said slowly, feeling her pulse pick up a bit at the mental image that immediately started forming -two Dallon sisters, both gorgeous, both strong in their own way, both taking orders from her- as a result. But it was a mental image that she firmly set aside, if only for a moment, to focus on another factor that might or might not have occurred to her girlfriend. “I’m definitely willing to consider it, and honestly, a big part of me is definitely into having both of you in my Party.”

Amy’s flush deepened into something that was equal parts excited, hopeful, pleased, and shy. It made her even cuter than normal, and Taylor had to struggle to maintain her serious mien instead of cooing at it or teasing her.

“But…I need you to actually think about what you’re asking for, baby. Because it’s not just ‘can Vicky come on the raid with us, I trust her and she fights good’, but what the long-term consequences could be. If she’s in my party, she’ll have to play by all the rules that you did in our first dungeon, and I’ll probably have to punish her the same way if she screws up. Are you okay with that? Are you okay with me bending her over and giving her a spanking? And are you okay with what might happen after that?”

Amy went very still against her chest, and for a long moment the only sound was the faint rustle of leaves overhead and the distant hum of the city beyond the treeline. When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet, but not from nerves or hesitance. It was quiet in the firm sort of way, the way that told Taylor she’d already thought this through, possibly for longer than tonight.

“I’ve thought about it. More than once, actually, ever since that first dungeon.” Amy admitted, confirming that assumption, tilting her head back so she could meet Taylor’s eyes properly. “And yeah. I’m okay with it. I want that for her, if that’s what ends up happening. Vicky’s…she…” she went silent for a moment. “Let’s just say, for the time being, that I know everything there is to know about Vicky, and that I think she’d be really happy as part of your Party. And she’s the most important person in my life, besides you. I want her with me, with us.”

Taylor studied her for a long moment, weighing the words and the emotion behind them, leaning more than a little into her enhanced perceptions. Amy wasn’t the type to say something like that lightly, not about her own family, and definitely not about something as weighted as this was. She meant every word, that much was obvious, and if anything was understating how much she wanted it.

“Okay.” she said finally, bobbing her head in agreement and enjoying the beaming look Amy gave her even as her pulse ticked up another notch at the thought of it becoming real. “Tentatively. We’ll bring her in, see how she does on the raid, and go from there. But Amy—” she paused, tightening her arms around the smaller girl, needing her to really hear this part. “I need you to understand something. If Vicky joins my Party, if she ends up breaking the rules and being punished, I won’t be able to drop her and let her go anymore than I was with you. Okay?”

“I know.” she says simply in reply, giving her a small but genuine smile. “I know exactly what that means, Taylor. That’s not a warning, it’s a promise, and I want it to be true for her too.”

“Amy—”

“No, listen.” Amy pulls back just enough to be able to meet Taylor’s eyes head on, directly and without issues. Making sure that there couldn’t be any misunderstandings about this. “I love Vicky, okay? I shouldn’t, not the way I do, but I do. And its because I love her that I’m sick of seeing her drive herself into the ground she does. She’s always trying to take care of everyone else -my, my mom, her dad, everyone!- and she needs someone to take care of her. I know what she wants Taylor, and what she wants is someone to make her let go.”

That was enough to quell any lingering doubts that Taylor might have had, but the other girl wasn’t done yet.

“Someone strong enough to hold her down when she stops fighting, keep her there until she’s happy.” Amy continued, her voice steady even as her cheeks stayed pink. “She’s never had that. Not really. She dates guys who fall over themselves trying to please her, or girls who are too intimidated by her to ever really push back, or plenty of both that just want the prestige,” the sneer, bitter and hateful, on that word was thick. “of dating the A-rank sister of an S-rank healer. She needs someone who won’t break under the weight of her, and who won’t let her carry everyone else’s weight either. I know you can be that person for her.”

Taylor let that settle, let the weight of it sink through her chest along with the arousal she couldn’t even try to restrain. God help her, but the idea of it —Vicky Dallon, all that confidence and power stripped away, kneeling and pliant and finally, finally letting someone else take the lead— was doing absolutely unfair things to her composure and ability to focus.

“Okay.” she said again, softer this time, and pressed a kiss to Amy’s forehead before pulling back enough to actually look at her properly. “Okay, I believe you. I want to do this, for the record. I want both of you.” she let her lips twitch into a wry, near-self-deprecating smile. “You might have noticed, but I’m feeling a bit greedy these days.”

“I know, and I’m okay with it, ma’am. But if I’m going to share you, then the first person I’m going to share you with will be someone I know is good enough. And Vicky is, Taylor. You’ll see. I promise.”

###########################################################################

Vicky hadn’t know what to expect from her sister calling her. Her first assumption -reasonably, to her mind, even if Amy certainly hadn’t agreed when she’d voiced it- is that Taylor had done something shitty and Amy needed a pickup and a shoulder to cry on…and maybe some revenge. When that wasn’t proven to be correct, she figured that Amy had wanted the three of them to just hang out, introduce her girlfriend to a member of the family as it were. The fact that she and Taylor had already met back in the hospital not counting, of course, given the circumstances.

Instead, she’d found herself confronted by the absolute vision that was the two dark-haired girls dressed in some of the sexiest, tightest clothes that she’d ever seen. Fuck, Taylor’s pants were practically painted on, and she’d stared for a blatant length of time before she’d been able to tear her eyes away and look at her sister.

Which hadn’t helped at all, because holy shit. That sure as hell wasn’t what Amy had left the house wearing, their mom never would have let Amy out of the house if she was dressed like that, especially not to go on a date!

The corset top left little to the imagination, the denim shorts even less, and Vicky’s brain had short-circuited entirely, resulting in it being stuck somewhere between “holy shit, that cleavage”, “that’s my sister’s cleavage” and “why is my sister’s cleavage incredible?”

“Okay, alright.” Vicky said slowly, taking a deep breath, once she’d recovered enough brain function to form words. “So this is either an intervention, a cult recruitment, or something I really, really need context for. Please tell me it’s the third one.”

“It’s option four, actually.” Taylor’s voice was warm, amused, and carried an undercurrent that made the hair on the back of Vicky’s neck stand up in a way that had nothing to do with a fear response and everything to do with the thought process of ‘no wonder my sister is obsessed with her’.

“And what’s option four?” Vicky asked a bit warily, arms crossing over her chest in a gesture that was probably meant to look defensive or stern but mostly just drew attention to said chest, which Taylor did not fail to notice, given the way her eyes flicked down for the barest fraction of a second before returning politely to Vicky’s face.

“I have a key. To a dungeon.” Taylor said simply, and Vicky blinked.

“Okay, and? You’re a Hunter, I’m a Hunter. Dungeons happen. Why is this a whole production with sexy outfits and my sister looking like she raided a lingerie shop and…wait.” she trailed off, eyes narrowing even as Amy blushed and folded her own arms. Not over her chest, like Vicky had, but under them, which had the result of pushing them up and making that cleavage even more prominent. Which Vicky very much did not look at, and anyone that said otherwise was a lying liar who lies. “Wait, you said you had a key to a dungeon? What the hell does that mean? You can’t have a contract for a gate, you’re underage like me.”

Amy and Taylor exchanged speaking looks for a long moment -Vicky tried not to feel jealous, that someone else could non-verbally communicate so easily with her precious sister- before Amy sighed.

“Just show her. Trying to explain it will take all day and just sound crazy anyway, might as well save ourselves the time and the trouble.”

“…yeah, alright.” Taylor sighed, holding out her hand like she was reaching for something. A swirl of white-lightning-edged black appeared in the air, her hand dipping into it, emerging a moment later holding a key of some kind. Vicky didn’t even have a moment to ask what had just happened -since when did the bug-scout girl have storage-summoning magic?!- before Taylor turned that same key. The world rippled strangely, like a mirage or something, and the next thing she knew Amy had grabbed her arm and yanked her forward. She stumbled through that ripple, scowl falling and a barked objection on the tip of her tongue…only to fall silent, wide-eyed and jaw-hanging, as she found herself standing on a rundown, post-apocalyptic highway on the outskirts of a walled-in, ruined city.

To one side, a few feet in front of her, was a sign.

Welcome to Ellisburg!

A Nice Place to Visit!

And somehow, floating right in front of her eyes, were all together different words, a sickly green and dripping puss.

[You have entered the Instanced Raid: The Nest of Nilbog. You are in the (Outskirts). You must defeat the GOBLIN KING NILBOG to leave! Fight your way forward, defeat his minions and bosses, and remove him from his throne!]