DD 304 Ch 2 (Patreon)

Des stood within the circle she had drawn in chalk on the stone slab that Sakura had brought for her practice.

"It has a wonderful shape, and I think the elements are all well done," Sakura said, walking the circle and judging Des's work.

Des put on her best smile. Sakura had been very helpful; however, it left her feeling like she suddenly had a hovering parent double-checking all her homework, unwilling to give her the answers. Instead, Sakura seemed to want her to figure it out for herself. School for Ken must have been brutal, Des thought to herself.

"Focus," Sakura scolded her, and Des hid any reaction on her face, though she imagined a few choice responses.

"Of course," Des said quickly. "This requires the utmost focus." It wasn’t like her own family hadn’t been slave drivers for a time.

"Now, back to the formation. Over here in this region." She pointed to a point that had two swirls colliding with a shaft coming out of it.

"The penis," Des said, and Sakura's face was one to behold. "Sorry, I'm a little pent up. Focusing on this and leaving Ken alone for so long."

Unfortunately, Ken's grandmother wasn't much amused by Des's excuse. "I would prefer even the mention of it not appear in our conversations."

Des smirked at the realization that Sakura hadn't even defined "it" in her admonishment. "Sorry, you know how it is."

"I do not," Sakura said stiffly. Sometimes Des wondered if she was just built differently. It was times like this that made Des fairly certain she was, though other times she just squinted and wondered if everyone else thought being a prude was the correct way to act.

Des had certainly gone through plenty of that herself before realizing just how freeing it was to admit her needs and preferences. She couldn't wait to finish all of this. The things Des was going to do to Ken…or rather, that he was going to do to her while horny out of his mind, after she finished all this preparation.

"Focus," Sakura growled this time, and Des sat up straight. Her needs hadn't been this bad in a long time.

"Ken's not here. He's diving with several of the other young ladies," Sakura said.

"Which ones?" Des asked.

"The elves and the Nekorian." Sakura answered.

Des's mind took that image and ran with it as far as it could, down her internal and seemingly ever-present train of depravity. The three of them would look so delicious writhing on the sheets together.

That thought somehow didn't help. Nothing was helping, though. She knew what would get her back to Ken.

"Focus," Des said to herself, and slapped her cheeks. If she could finish this then she’d not need to deprive herself any further.

"Yes, please. For all our sakes," Sakura said blandly.

"Right, right. So…what do you think?" Des tried to push her toward a final conclusion rather than going over each part again.

"The whole of it is quite good," Sakura said after a moment. "You just have one step next."

Des paled, but she knew what it was, especially when Sakura handed her the chisel. "Now you have to carve it into the floor, so you have a well for the reagents." She said the word with an almost sneer, perhaps simply not wanting to say "succubus blood."

Des kept it safely tucked away in her CID, for soon it would help her with a final transformation. With all the work Ken was doing with the demons, it was an important step. It was an investment in their future.

***

"You must be one with the blade," Uzamaki said to Charlotte, who lay crisscrossed on the dojo floor, a club across her lap.

Charlotte squinted open one eye. "But you're making me start with a club, and not a blade."

"It is still a blade. It is an edgeless blade," Uzamaki said with mock dignity. "Now, quiet. Are you the teacher or the student?"

"Student," Charlotte answered on instinct not to get hit again. An instinct that had grown surprisingly quickly after working with Ken’s grandfather.

Despite his eccentricities, he'd been a fairly good trainer. Charlotte had already seen significant improvement in the week she'd spent working with him. She wanted to kill the Crystal Whale, but it was a massive test of endurance that would be incredibly difficult for a healer, one that at the end required her to be at her best to fight the powerful crystal shark that hatched from the whale. It didn't make sense, but then again, many aspects of the dungeon simply just existed, and she'd long stopped questioning the oddities.

"Breathe, Charlotte. Do not let your mind wander," Uzamaki said. "You must become one with the girthy wood in your lap."

"Blade's okay. We can call it a blade," Charlotte insisted, peeking open one eye to see Uzamaki with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. For as much as he often told her to take things more seriously, he could be wildly unserious about everything.

"If you insist," he said, chin stuck up in the air.

"And how is becoming one with the blade different from not letting the blade lead me?" Charlotte asked.

"These are such esoteric concepts that will greatly improve your weapon craft. However, they must each be found for themselves and cannot simply be explained." He answered.

"Because that would ruin the mysticism?" Charlotte asked wondering if this was just paying forward his own tortured training.

"Exactly. Now you understand. And for that comment, stand up and ready your stick… er I mean blade." Uzamaki shouted the last part and jumped forward. Charlotte didn't even have time to think before he was on her, attacking. While she had a stick, he had a sword, though it was blunted. His blade clashed against the club in her hand as she did her best to steady herself, drive her foot into the ground, and retaliate.

"Good, good," Uzamaki cheered her on before dodging out of the way. His sword blurred and struck her from the other side.

She moved less by thought and more by instinct, her own club swinging repeatedly, ringing against Uzamaki's blade.

"You're getting better. One of these days my grandson will bring me someone who's very bad at what they do, and then I'm going to gloat that he finally found a dud," Uzamaki said with far too much glee.

"And if he brings home a dud, we will be very nice to her.” Charlotte defended this hypothetical woman.

“In no time you'll be able to fight the whale," Uzamaki promised her while completely ignoring her comment. "Most of what you need to work on is stamina and timing," Ken's grandfather said, for the thousandth time.

Or maybe it was the thousand and first. Charlotte was starting to lose track. Perhaps if she spent enough time here with the old man, she'd become kooky and crazy too. She was beginning to think she was already going down that route.

Uzamaki grinned, caught her club, and sent her flying, a massive grin on his face.

"That's mean.”

“Dear favorite granddaughter-in-law." He began before she cut him off.

"Do you always send your favorite landing on her ass?"

"Yes, that's what makes you my favorite." He answered.

Charlotte stared back at him incredulously while he simply smiled, wide-eyed.

"Did you train Ken like this?" she asked.

"Oh no. His was much worse," Uzamaki nodded to himself. "And besides, call me Grandpa," he insisted.

"Yes, Grandfather," she said, and though he frowned, she was fairly certain he was happy enough with her answer. “By the way, what is next?" They’d been doing much of the same training every day.

"We continue to challenge you," he grinned, "until you are comfortable going out and fighting the whale on your own. Really, it's a measure of stamina. I suppose by the time you can last in the ring with me for an hour…" He lifted his brow, as if he wasn't quite sure what the number should be himself. "You can certainly take on some stinky oversized fish."

"Yes, Grandfather," she said quickly, and he cooed in turn.

"Again."

"Yes, Grandfather."

"I knew you were the best of them," he said conspiratorially. "Some of the others might like Penny or Des better, maybe even Crimson, but no. To me, you are the best, granddaughter-in-law."

Charlotte felt like she was being buttered up, but at the same time couldn't find it in herself to be too mad at the old man. She wasn't quite sure how he did it, but despite all his antics, it was very hard to stay angry at him for long.

"Yes, Grandfather." It was a singularly aggravating skill that he somehow had complete mastery over. "We'll keep going," Charlotte said with determination.

Bun Bun, who had been sleeping in the corner, raised his hands with a small squeak and gave Charlotte some encouragement, before the lazy bunny flopped right back down, his giant ears practically begging for Charlotte to grab and pull, though she would never do that.

Perhaps it wasn't that Grandpa was too good at getting away with things. Charlotte could admit she was very likely a softy, the type to let people get away with too much. When Charlotte got tired, she pushed herself, using her healing to supplement rest and common sense. It would catch up with her, but she only needed to last long enough to deal with the whale. It wasn't as if she'd be fighting like this for the rest of her life. It was a little bit of a cheat; she could admit that. But she would do whatever she needed to do to kill the whale.

As a healer getting such a massive mana pool would save them countless times in the dungeon. This wasn’t something she could overlook just because healers weren’t particularly fit for this trial.

***

I wiped sweat from my brow as it threatened to bead down through my soaked brows and into my eyes again.

"Wow," Elysara stated while she checked her CID. She was definitely the lowest level, and thus had seen the greatest benefit from grinding away. Based on the look on her face, she’d done well.

"Ahem. See? It's a good spot," I said with a grin.

Everyone in the group seemed quite happy with the progress, me included. Most of the day had been spent here, but I'd gained nearly a third of a level. At that rate I could do some serious leveling if I pushed myself. And it would be faster if I went solo. However, going in a group this size was nice. It gave us a chance to run it in pairs while taking some time off to recover, so that while we were grinding, we could do it at peak efficiency.

"Well, does that mean we're done?" Neldra asked, stepping forward and slicing the boss in two, red lightning crackling off her with pride.

"Oh, yes," Elysara said. "I have… duties to tend to," she said, as though they were something brown and squishy she'd found on the bottom of her boot and loathed having to clean up.

"Please, Empress, you must not speak of your duties like that," Neldra insisted.

"Never in public. But here, in the privacy of the dungeon and with my husband, I will speak my mind." There was a sharpness in her tone, daring Neldra to disagree. Of course, the royal censor was smart enough not to take that particular path, even if it was offered by her Empress. When Neldra didn't resist, there was a smug smile on Elysara's face.

I gave her a look that I hoped said, don't push her too much. But when it came to Empresses, it was often hard to guess if they understood. She was very capable of keeping her expression neutral. It was a practiced control. But as my woman, I'd like to think I got the message across well enough.

"Of course, Nellie, it isn't too much of a hassle most of the time. Though I think I put up with enough bullshit from some of those nobles that I've earned the right to throw out at least a few stray comments." Elysara stated.

"I'm afraid as a Royal Censor I can't entertain those notions, as it would make me seem biased on the occasions I must serve our people's best interest." Neldra responded.

There was a flat smile from Elysara. "Of course, I understand."

I had understood that that answer was about as close, in princess-speak, to fuck you as it got. It always made me chuckle how such polite words could carry such disdain. It was truly a skill, and it was not one I had available. When I was impolite, it simply came off as impolite. Neldra, however, understood well enough to squint her eyes at the comment, yet she had enough sense not to continue the argument.

Another fun fact I had learned about empresses and princesses was that they seemed to rarely, if ever, lose a conversation.

"No," Elysara said, folding her hands in her lap. "As much as we can banter about some aspects of the role, it does not change the fact that I simply must depart. As much as I might tire of my responsibilities from time to time, they are important enough that I would never neglect them."

Neldra nodded at that as Elysara ripped open a portal that would take her back home.

Neldra and Fayeth both disappeared with her, the latter with a peck on my cheek before she left, leaving me alone with Felin, who glanced at the spot where the dead boss had been and then back at me.

"So, what now?" she asked.

"I think we should go back and check on the others. I'd be interested to see how they're doing with their own training." I told her.

"Time to snoop," Felin perked up, her ears twitching a hair higher.

"We are not snooping," I told her, and the toothy grin she gave me told me that by whatever definition I wished to use, we were most certainly going to do what she considered snooping. And apparently that brought her considerable excitement.

"Okay," though I had a feeling whatever I tried to convince her of was ultimately going to fail. "Come, before you get me in trouble," I said and popped open a portal.

"I would never get you in trouble. I am a practiced hunter. We do not get in trouble." Felin frowned. 

"Trouble finds you from time to time.” I told her, teasing.

Felin wrinkled her nose. "Others bring trouble to me. Not my fault."

"Trouble," I said, pointing a finger at her. She responded with a massive grin, grabbing my hand and pulling me back through the portal.

"We're just going to go look. It's good that we go look. It means we care." She smiled.

"Uh-huh," I said, as she dragged me into the Nagato clan estate, where she cupped a hand around her mouth.

"Oh, Charlotte! Ken's here to see you!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, which only made me glare more.

"She's with your grandfather in the dojo," Akari shouted from somewhere else.

"Thank you," I called loudly, though not quite shouting before turning to Felin. "Fine, we'll go see them.”

A victorious smile spread across her face. "This way?" she asked, and spun us around, very clearly already knowing the way.