DD 304 Ch 3 (Patreon)

I stepped into the main hall to see Charlotte's green hair whipping behind her as she crashed into Grandfather, a wooden staff in her hand clacking against his blade. Then the two exploded away from each other. She landed on her back foot and charged right back in.

"You got it, Charlotte!" I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted.

She puffed herself up momentarily, only for Grandfather to catch her in that moment of distraction, flipping her with the back of his sword before kicking her in the rear and sending her flying while she clutched at it in pain.

"Hey, you weren't supposed to do that. I was distracted," Charlotte said, only for Grandpa to shake his head in disappointment.

"I do not accept your excuse," he said, crossing his arms. "Don't be a sore loser."

Charlotte puffed out her cheeks and glared at him but didn't fight him on it any further. I had been on the receiving end of Grandpa’s training enough to understand exactly what she was going through.

I crossed my arms and stared at Grandpa. "Are you bullying her?"

"It's called training, Ken," he mirrored me by crossing his arms only he stuck his nose in the air.

"Is that what it's called now?" I said in mock disappointment.

"Charlotte, tell Ken the truth of it," Grandpa said.

Charlotte turned to me cute as could be, her eyes wide with pure innocence. "He bullied me so much." She told me.

Grandpa's jaw dropped to the floor.

I used [Shadow Ambush], immediately crossing the distance between us and swinging at Grandfather's back. He swayed deftly to the side, our blades crossing for a brief moment before he darted away.

Though in that moment I felt that if I’d really pressed him I could have broken his stance. Huh, I was strong enough to overwhelm him now.

"You would believe her over your own grandfather?" He asked.

I deadpanned, holding the blade down and meeting his eyes. "Yes." Somehow being stronger made clashing with him less fun.

Grandpa gasped. "How? How could you?" he accused, pointing a finger at me. "After all I've done to raise you."

"Maybe I just want to test my blade against yours," I answered and was on him again.

It was two blades against one, as I dual-wielded, but Grandpa had very little issue defending himself. His insane reaction speed let him slip to the side when I went in lightly with one blade. When I went in with two, he met my blade with his one, and we clashed for a moment as he struggled before purple lightning began to course down my arm and suddenly I was picking up enough speed that Grandpa was struggling to keep up as well as avoiding direct confrontation with my blades.

"Is this how you treat the elderly, Ken? I would think we raised you better." He told me.

I crossed my arms. "Really, you're going to use that?"

"If I don't, who knows what you'll do to me?" He clutched at his arms and shivered as he darted away. I decided the brief moment of conflict, and what little taste I'd had for picking a fight with Grandfather, was gone.

"Anyways, I didn't come in here to see you." Instead, my eyes turned to Charlotte. "It looks like you are doing well."

"The training is going fantastically," Charlotte beamed. "Even if my trainer can be a little bit of a troublemaker." Charlotte shifted her eyes to Grandpa, who awkwardly looked over his shoulder, only to turn back a second later.

"You don't mean me, do you? I would never be trouble. In fact, I resent the whole idea that you would even suggest it." He told her.

I shared a look with Charlotte, and she gave me a pained expression as if to say, let me show you what I'm dealing with. I could only watch in complete understanding.

"He really is nothing but trouble," I agreed. "I think you're ready for the Crystal Whale," I told her, and she held the staff out like a sword.

"It feels impossible to strike down something so large with something so small," she said, then grinned. "But I'm going to do it anyway."

I could only smile at her determination. "Well, good luck. Perhaps after you pass our final exam, we should have a celebration." The resulting smile was so glaringly beautiful I nearly lost my composure, though I managed to recover with what I hoped was a gentle one. "I can't wait for you to absolutely blow away the rest of the class. So yes, I'll have to figure out where we're going to eat to celebrate."

"Yes, you are," Charlotte said with enough confidence that I felt fairly hopeful in her success as well.

"What are you two cuties doing?" Grandpa slipped up behind us silently and wrapped his arms around our shoulders, a mischievous grin on his face.

"Ah, right, you're still here," I said, causing him to drop his jaw.

"How did my grandson become so rude? I have to get Sakura over here to teach you a lesson." He told me.

"And whose side do you really think she's going to take?" Charlotte goaded him, and he suddenly found anything and everything else in the room more interesting, which was an answer in itself.

I kissed Charlotte's cheek. "Attagirl. Don't let him take advantage of you." I paused. "I also need to look for Des…any idea where I might be able to dig her up from? I assume Sakura has at least bonked her into the ground for all her horny comments."

"I don't think that's the best idea," my beautiful green-haired druid looked up at me. "Last I heard, Sakura was making her avoid you as a way of motivation."

I wasn't exactly sure how that would motivate someone like Des, but I left it alone. If that was their wish, so be it. I'd find her later once she was done. Or she’d find me, the more I thought about it, the more that seemed the most likely outcome.

We were all going to need to start power-leveling as quickly as we could, between everything we seemed to be up against lately, we needed all the power we could get. Threats were becoming bigger and starting to risk humanity itself.

The Orkai were monitoring the Threadspawn, but we’d need to be able to defend ourselves.

I pushed the weight of that responsibility aside, focusing on what I could change in front of me. "If you're done, do you want to farm levels?" I asked.

Charlotte shook her head. "Right now I need to focus on stats and training. The higher level I get, the harder the Crystal Whale."

I nodded in complete understanding. She and many others in the class were all still working to get their trial abilities; I'd already done that, which put me ahead of the class in a slightly awkward fashion. What I really needed to do was grind levels as best I could while using other activities to supplement my stats. While it might sound like a rather easy job, it would require substantial focus, not only from myself but the rest of my party, in order to get there in a reasonable amount of time. And, perhaps most importantly, it would require enough participating members. Though, that didn’t seem to be a problem in the slightest.

After this first wave of growing stats, I would just have to reinvest them and continue the process as quickly as I could. There were far too many people who needed me to get stronger. The Threadspawn were out there, and though the Orkai and I were tracking them, they were bound to cause more issues in the near future. They didn't seem like the type to leave well enough alone.

***

I slid the classroom door open in Star City only to find the class full, Crimson standing with her arms crossed and her bright red high heels rocking back and forth as she tapped her foot impatiently.

"Now, Ken, you might be my favorite student, however that does not grant you permission to arrive late." She glared at me, and I had to swallow a groan to keep from making whatever she was planning even worse. I knew that because of our relationship she felt she needed to be extra harsh with me, and in this moment I could feel it meant making an example of me.

“My apologies, Crimson," I threw her my most charming smile. Unfortunately, that only earned me a scowl. It seemed I wasn't going to be able to weasel my way out of this quite so easily.

The rest of the class had been snickering since she called me her favorite student, and that wasn't making the situation better for anyone involved. So instead I put my hands in my lap and bowed slightly to her, then to the rest of the class.

"I apologize for being disruptive to everyone's education. After all, we are here to learn." I intoned.

Crimson, at least, seemed marginally satisfied by the display. A touch of humility often worked well on her in these situations.

Harley stuck her hand in the air. "Crimson, teacher, I really do appreciate Ken's willingness to take accountability for his tardiness. However, shouldn't he make it up to all of us in some way?"

I glared at Harley, hoping I was communicating ‘what are you doing’ with my eyes. In response, a giant grin spread across her face. That's when I knew I was going to regret whatever came next.

Harley turned to Crimson. "Really, Ken should make this up by taking on some of the gravity training exercises for all of us. I think that's the best way he could prove he understands there are consequences for disturbing your class."

"Oh, an interesting idea," Crimson pretended to think about Harley’s idea, though I had no doubt Harley's suggestion was not going to go as well as she thought. "That is a very interesting suggestion, Harley," Crimson said, still feigning consideration, before her grin turned downright devilish. "But if there's one thing I hate more than my students being late, it's my students trying to get out of work that I so carefully prepared to help them survive in the future."

"Me? What? No!" Harley waved her hands in front of her. "Crimson, you mustn’t misunderstand. I would never, ever try to get out of work." She made her eyes big and round, the picture of innocence.

"Quiet." Crimson's whip slashed out, hitting her desk with a thunderous boom, as if there were lightning right there in the classroom. Yet despite the noise and apparent destruction, the desk remained spotless and unharmed.

She must have upgraded those.

Harley chuckled nervously and leaned back, her hair disheveled from the sudden and powerful gust that had filled the room.

Des picked at her own windswept hair and glared at Harley. "Don't piss Crimson off. We all suffer when you do." Other classmates murmured in instant agreement.

"It's not that I meant to upset her. She just gets upset easily," Harley tried to argue, but Crimson cleared her throat, leaning against the lectern and smiling sweetly at her.

"Well, in that case, I'll give you a chance to make it up. Everyone in class did the reading I assigned last night, correct?" Crimson knew that Harley rarely, if ever, did the readings.

"Of course," Harley lied through her teeth.

"Good. Then you'll have no problem summarizing it, I assume." Crimson watched Harley.

Harley's eyes went wide. "But you gave us actual research documents to read."

"I thought you read them all." Crimson responded.

"I did, but I think my understanding of those documents might not be up to the task of explaining it to the rest of the class. Really, I'm sure Candice is dying to share her insights with everyone." Harley nodded.

"I would be happy to," the blonde, perfect student of the class began to stand, only for Crimson to glare.

"Sit your ass back down, or so help me," Crimson said, and Candice slowly lowered herself back into her seat, folding her hands in her lap as though she hadn't just been horribly scolded.

"Sorry, Harley," Candice said. "I don't think I'm going to be able to help with this one."

Harley groaned, looking at Crimson with big wide eyes. "Maybe a little private time with Ken might cheer you up," she tried.

Crimson strode across the room, each click of her heel like the ominous toll of a bell promising Harley's death, before she stood before the pink-haired bard's desk and handed her a piece of chalk.

"Do your best," she said, though somehow it sounded like a curse. It had that same sharp edge.

"Well, I think of most things in a diagram format," Harley chuckled, stepping up to the chalkboard with the chalk as if it were a lead weight in her hand. "So," Harley began, drawing a picture of a ‘drow’ slowly. A five year old would be proud of her level of detail.

"Oh good, you at least know what the subject was about," Crimson said dryly.

"Of course I do. Drow are all the rage, and you can tell it's a drow because it has fangs and pointy ears." Harley drew a line from each and wrote out the word ‘poison’ next to the fangs, and next to the ears, she wrote ‘great hearing’.

"Is that all you've got?" Crimson asked, looking at the diagram and then back at Harley in disappointment.

"No, no, I have more." Harley said quickly. "They have green blood." She said the fact as if it were the discovery of the century. "And they see very well in the dark."

Crimson stood, arms crossed, in unimpressed disappointment. "It seems your method of thinking through these could use a little work."

"Alright, the paper was confusing. It used a bunch of big words that made my eyes glaze over," Harley admitted.

Crimson sighed and shook her head. "Fine. I'm sure someone can do better. Candice, would you be willing to build on Harley's diagram? Perhaps make it more valuable for the class."

Candice had no problem stepping up to the board as Harley deposited the chalk in her hand like she was escaping a death sentence and scurried back to her desk.

Harley should have known she would not get off that easily. She got about halfway to her desk before Crimson's whip found her ankle and uprooted her, pulling her back to the front, where Crimson stood her by the chalkboard.

"Well, Harley, since you missed the question on your first go, it'd be best for you to stay close and learn from Candice," Crimson smiled devilishly, as Harley's face paled.

"What do you mean?" Harley asked, a slight tremor in her voice.

"If you could please position yourself in a squat and hold it." Crimson began pulling out one of the portable gravity tools, assembling it oh so clearly for Harley's displeasure.

"But I read it! I just didn't understand it!" Harley whined, but Crimson paid her no heed.

Harley looked around the class with a pitiful expression, looking for anyone who might help her overcome Crimson's ire. Of course her gaze landed on me, and I found myself looking away. It was probably best that Harley continue learning her lessons in an environment that wouldn't punish her too much, like the classroom. It was a far better place for her to suffer mistakes than the dungeon.

While this was all going on, Candice, in the blink of an eye, finished her diagram. She'd even gone so far as to upgrade Harley’s drawing and even shaded everything with hatching, so that it looked like a piece of art rather than a simple diagram.

“Fuck me.” Harley muttered once she saw how badly she was outclassed.

"From the corpses that the UG has recovered and researchers have gone through, we have a solid understanding of the drow. Well, we at least have a better understanding than we had before, by a large margin." The diagram now had a dozen points as Candice began going over the physiological differences between humans and drow.

Unlike Harley, I had read the paper, so none of this was particularly new to me, but it was still quite interesting. The main points, beyond the already obvious, were the toxins in their mouths, their green blood, and other traits that made them great nocturnal predators.

Several of their joints worked differently from ours, and a few of the muscles around their jaw didn't have tendons. Instead, they had bony spurs the muscles attached to, meaning their bite was likely far more powerful than the size of their jaw might otherwise suggest. Their organs were also vastly different; besides the lungs and heart, the rest of their gut was arranged in an alien order. Finally, there were small glands along the sides of their throats that stored their venom.

Candice went on to explain several thoughts the researchers had on where potential critical weak points might be. Because they had a different organ structure, they also had different weak points. Candice finished her explanation and paused, staring out at the rest of the classroom who all looked particularly dazed. I began clapping.

"Well done, Candice," I spoke up before someone like Harley could say something stupid.

"Yeah, great job," Charlotte picked up my praise, as did Des, though she shot a strange look in my direction. Des looked particularly rabid, like she was about to jump on me and devour me.

"Thank you," Candice bowed to the front of the class. "I am just doing my best, especially considering how much some of my classmates contributed to this valuable research. I thought it was important that we all took the time to read and benefit from the knowledge." Candice smiled, and from where she'd dipped her head, a strand of hair fell forward; she used a finger to gracefully tuck it back behind her ear.

"Well said," Crimson began clapping excitedly. I saw the moment Harley was about to say something and shook my head, glaring at her. We did not need her to cause more trouble.

Harley decided her comment was perhaps not her best idea, and instead clammed up. I let out a breath.

After that, class continued without too much further issue. We were going through rather advanced material as we closed out our third year. Crimson's methods were unorthodox, to say the least, but the reality was she was doing a damn good job as a teacher. She wasn't sticking to the simple scripts she'd been offered. Instead, she went out of her way to do things like assign the latest research on drow, given they were now a legitimate concern for the class while diving the dungeon. While the information was downright terrifying, it was not meant to make us comfortable. It was meant to keep us alive.

"Well then, we can close our books for today." The way Crimson closed hers with a boom caused many of us, myself included, to wince. She chuckled slightly and covered it with a cough. "Ken, if you can stay after, I have something for you. Otherwise, everyone…class is dismissed. We have training in the gravity chambers in an hour," she called out.