DD 304 Ch 7 (Patreon)

As the days went on, I trained my ass off, which really felt more comfortable than most activities at this point. After classes I would work myself to the bone and on weekends I’d take anyone who’d join me to the leveling spot. Which was blazing fast leveling at this point of the dungeon. I’d managed to hit level 60, though our party was staggering because those who hadn’t gotten their trial ability weren’t leveling on purpose.

Charlotte paused next to me after class, long enough for me to look up and realize she wanted to say something.

"Yes, Charlotte?" I said, turning to her with a smile.

"I'm going to go after the Crystal Whale again today, I think. I'd love it if you'd watch." She asked me to join with the most adorable blush.

I wasn't going to turn her down. Besides, I wanted to see all of her effort in action.

"Right now?" I asked, my hand lingering in the air, ready to rip a portal open for her.

She paused, took a deep breath, and then nodded. "Yes. Now. Before I lose my nerve," she shifted back and forth on her feet.

I leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "You'll be fine. Worst case scenario, we try again later."

Charlotte made a grunt of acknowledgement, and before I could open a portal, she opened one and marched through like she owned the place.

“That works.” I shrugged, following her through. 

No one else in our class had moved quickly enough to be here yet.

I looked up at the whale, flying lazily in the air above without a care in the world.

Meanwhile, Charlotte stepped up with fierce determination, a light in her eyes.

"You've got this," I called out as the portal closed behind us and Charlotte pulled her braid back over her shoulder. Bun Bun chirped his own encouragement.

"No, I've got this," Charlotte said to whatever Bun Bun had told her.

She put a belt around her head, tying it tight and I couldn't help but scowl, wondering what nonsense Grandpa had put in her head for her to think that was remotely necessary.

But regardless. I was here to support Charlotte. And while the old man was wacky in many ways, he knew how to train warriors.

"You've got this," I encouraged, putting any of my own baggage aside. I was here to support a woman that I loved.

With the band around her head, she let out what could only be a battle cry and charged forward. She held a staff in hand like a baseball bat.

The Crystal Whale was a challenge of mana more than anything. It took a great deal of damage to bring the Crystal Whale even out of its first phase. Much of the difficulty was simply having the magical stamina to still be able to put up a fight by the time it was out of the first phase.

While Charlotte was a healer, she had a number of storm-based spells. Still, it was going to be an impressive feat for her to take down this trial, simply because healers had such little offensive skills in the first place. Though she'd been training, I still didn't fully understand her plan.

But I was as surprised when she pulled her staff back and swung it forward, shouting at the top of her lungs.

A funnel cloud appeared above the Crystal Whale, twisting down and crashing onto the whale, driving it from the sky in a sustained twister that pushed it until its crystalline belly rested right in front of Charlotte.

Her cry redoubled as she began whaling on the whale, swinging that club for all that she was worth while at least maintaining balance.

While she could have done this without training from my grandfather, it was immediately clear that the training had paid off, at least to some extent. Her blows were heavy enough to make visible damage on the whale. Her stance was solid, and she drove strength from her legs into her hips and directly into damage on the whale. Most importantly though she struck correctly, her form carried the power through into the whale far better than if she’d just come here and started hammering on it.

"And that is why even healers don't skip leg day," Crimson spoke as she appeared beside me, a portal opening and pouring her out.

"And for a minute I thought you were going to let her do this in privacy." I told Crimson.

Crimson waggled her head. "If I could, I would."

"But you can't, so you shan't." I offered. Most likely she was using this as another chance to encourage the class. Only about a third of us had our trial abilities.

"Exactly. I love it when you get me, Ken." Crimson beamed.

I shook my head at her antics and decided it was better leaving her alone than trying to keep up with her in this. That, and my focus was fixed on Charlotte while she did her best in the challenge in front of her. I was nervous enough that I didn't cheer for her, worried that I might distract her and ruin her focus.

It was clear she was in the zone at least to start the challenge. This one would always be one of endurance. That spell keeping the whale within range of her attacks was costing her mana, and the real timer for all of this.

With a belt tied around her head, Charlotte continued to run through the Nagato clan form with rigid accuracy while the entire class watched, having filed in behind Crimson. The entire time, Charlotte's focus didn't waver a hair. I doubt she even realized the class had shown up.

Meanwhile, the swirling wind that held down the whale continued. I was fairly certain that I finally understood what exactly Charlotte had been aiming to do with the move. While she had a number of spells she could cast, like lightning, or swirling balls of wind, they were fairly inefficient at best. But with this skill, she could likely keep her mana relatively high while she hammered away with the staff.

She had built a smart strategy, using her mana to ground her opponent and, very uncaster-like, going at it with a club. It was crude. A little silly, both of which had my grandfather written all over it. But it was also proving very effective.

I watched as Harley squeezed her fist and bit her lip while watching Charlotte, clearly wanting to cheer but knowing better. It was good to know that Harley could at times have restraint. Either that, or she was fearful of what Crimson would do if she ruined the moment for Charlotte.

I turned my eyes back to the druid, who for fifteen minutes pounded at the whale, sweat beading down her head. She worked with an intensity that anyone could respect. Fifteen minutes might now sound like much, but it was eternity in what was essentially her sprinting through the forms with absolute focus.

The monsters for the trial abilities were supposed to be incredibly difficult. I wondered if there was a counter to this built in.

Charlotte continued her fight while the class watched, so singularly entertained that many of us didn't even sit down. We stood with rapt attention as the whale continued to crack until the exterior shattered as we'd all come to expect. It followed the same pattern as how this fight had gone before when Felin had completed the trial.

The whale's exterior shattered.

What was revealed underneath was a crystal shark that began enjoying its freedom by swirling around, circling Charlotte, and coming at her with a number of teeth that only a shark could have.

To my surprise, she didn't put away the staff and instead squared up again to the second phase. I frowned, only for Crimson to make a noise of understanding.

"She's really going to go all out on this, isn't she?" Crimson said with a hint of appreciation.

The shark swam by her, and Charlotte smacked it hard in the side of the head as she rolled out of the way, getting nicked by the jagged crystalline skin of the shark and throwing a healing spell on herself. Then she squared right back up and stared at the monster.

I wanted to cheer for her but dreaded breaking her focus. Through all of this she hadn't looked over her shoulder at me, and now the rest of the class, even once. She ducked and dodged the shark as much as she could while continuing to club it, slowly but surely, to death.

Every now and then it would swim away, squaring up and then charging her again.

But Charlotte had an answer to that move as well. She would pause and throw a stormy bolt at the monster, as if punishing it for creating distance. Each and every one of her attacks was a calculated maneuver.

She had been fighting for at least an hour by that point, and Charlotte's green hair had turned dark with sweat. Her clothes were torn and dribbled blood from hundreds of shallow cuts that she'd sustained through all of the attacks.

I was so damn proud of her.

For everything I'd witnessed, the shark itself was beginning to crack under her efforts. And not only myself but many others in class were barely holding back their own excitement.

All of us had experienced these fights dozens of times, and even if the shadow panther I had spent so much time fighting was different, it didn't change how much I understood the difficulty of what Charlotte was undertaking.

So when the shark lost a fin as it cracked off, a major sign of her continued success, I cheered with everyone else.

Our excitement startled Charlotte and she jerked back at the wrong moment, the shark catching her shoulder and tossing her to the ground hard enough to drive the air from her lungs.

I wanted to run in and protect her, but I couldn't. Intervening would waste all the hard work she had already done.

Charlotte rolled to her feet. She let out a shout and swung her club with all her power, catching the shark on its nose as it came for her again. Her form was sloppy, ruined from being knocked to the ground. But she made the best of the strike and actually managed to ride the monster's own force and push herself out of the way of that attack.

The tail swished as it pivoted and slapped her hard enough to break skin, but she kept her feet as it came around again.

Charlotte let out a small whoop of excitement. The next second, I saw her gaze shift and she focused on what came next. The shark was wounded, and she was a little scattered from being knocked down. But I could tell that she was very determined to get the fight back under her control.

The shark threw itself at her again, and this time she threw herself far into a tumbling roll to miss that attack, only to come back to her feet, a spell already churning in her hand before she hurled it at the monster.

It twisted away, trying to swim up for the first time, squaring down on her. Most adventurers up against this level of opponent would show at least some hesitation, but instead Charlotte summoned the same twisting wind that she had used to push the first form down. And this time the ability hit the shark as it dove. Its nose went too far, landing early, while Charlotte pounced on it, club in hand, her form breaking as she attacked it with a new and more violent frenzy than before.

I was sure all of us watching were thinking about how low her mana must be at that point. She was going so hard that she had to be at the end of her rope. Her eyes drooped with exhaustion both physical and no doubt low mana.

This would be a critical point that she didn’t lose at the end.

Charlotte cried out, swinging like a mad woman, and the crystal shark finally shattered to pieces, falling apart as the crowd let out an audible sigh of relief.

"That was terrifying." I chuckled. The rest of the class seemed to be of much the same opinion.

Harley rushed forward crying and grabbed Charlotte. "I knew you could do it!" She threw herself over the druid with an obnoxious amount of tears streaming down her face.

"Thank you," Charlotte said, finally looking up and realizing just how many people were watching. "Thanks for coming and joining me for the fight. Now, if you don't mind me—"

Charlotte immediately flopped down on her back, arms spread out in every direction like a starfish, and let out a squeal of joy as she began to kick her legs in the air.

"You did it!" I rushed up and scooped Charlotte off the ground, cradling her in my arms and twirling around with her.

"I did it!" Charlotte said with a giant grin as blue lightning crackled over her briefly. She let out a squeal of excitement in response.

"Of course you did. There was never a doubt in my mind." I told her.

"Maybe a little in mine. That thing is though!" Des said, coming over, smirking at Charlotte. The two of them shared a moment, looking in each other's eyes.

"As long as it was only a little," Charlotte said, and it was clear nothing could ruin her mood right now, as she seemed content to relax in my arms. I don't think I had any issue with giving her my full attention.

"What now?" Des asked.

I shrugged in response. "I'm sure if we try hard enough we can find something. But I also don't know if I'm that interested in trying that hard," I emphasized with a giant smirk on my face.

"Well then, let's go back and celebrate." Des smushed her face to Charlotte's, and then skipped away, leaving me with a beautiful druid in my arms.

"For some reason she seems more excited than me," Charlotte stated, sounding at least moderately confused.

"I would actually agree," I said, observing Des with some of my own confusion.

Crimson, who'd been watching all of this from nearby, smiled, stepping up and patting Charlotte on the shoulder. "Congratulations. You've worked hard."

"Thank you." Charlotte dipped her head.

"As for Des, I'm fairly certain that she was waiting for you to finish before she went to finish her own project." Crimson told us.

Charlotte beamed. "Well, that's very kind of her. But I don't know if I need that much consideration," Charlotte said with a blush.

"I think it's Des's own way of being supportive," I told Charlotte. "I think we can at least give her this one. And besides, I wonder how much you can squeeze out of her in the name of a celebration."

As I spoke, my CID chimed several times. Though I was far more interested in the conversation here, I did need to give whoever it was my attention apparently.

"One second," I apologized to Charlotte, putting her down and turning my wrist over to see who it was that had decided to interrupt.

Only then did I see it was the president of the UG. And of course, the only appropriate response was a heavy sigh.

Crimson frowned. "Who is that?" she asked, as she leaned around me to read along with me on my CID. "Scaredy cat," she said, with a frown. "Just ignore him. I'm sure whatever he wants we can deal with later."

"Apparently, he's got someone new working for him and wants to make them our official liaison." I told her.

“I’m going to take a shower and relax for a bit before we celebrate.” Charlotte said, giving me an excuse to go. Though, I wasn’t quite ready to put her down.

"That's the kind of service the UG should be giving adventurers," Crimson said with a nod.

"So I should meet him?" I asked.

"Oh no, make him sweat," Crimson said.

"If he'd heard half the things you said about him, he would pitch a fit." Charlotte said.

"I dare him," Crimson said with absolute confidence. "And even then, I don't think he would."

I knew she was right, but it always felt so disrespectful, and some part of me simply balked at that alone.

"Well, if this is the kind of service the UG should give all adventurers, then Ken should probably show them that it’s worth something, right?” Charlotte, ever the heart of the party, said.

I enjoyed the scowl that passed over Crimson’s face as she battled with Charlotte’s words and her own guidance. Personally I felt that I should at least make things easier for the president of the UG. He was a valuable… employee. Strange to think of him that way, but now that we had control of the UG that’s exactly what he was. Somehow flipping the roles of authority between the two of us made me want to go be a good boss.

"I don't know," Crimson said, knowing what Charlotte said was true and being absolutely unwilling to admit it. So, I stared her down for a moment longer and she cracked. "Fine," she said. "Where are they?"

"Apparently at Haylon Academy, because they didn't know where we were." I told her.

"Ha, we're never there." Crimson crossed her arms.

"No, we're always at Star City, which is likely too high level for any secretary that he could hire.” I told her.

It was perfectly clear how Crimson felt about my logic, based on the scowl on her face. "Fine. I'll go see who it is and then, so that I'm better able to ignore them in the future." Crimson wasn’t quite willing to give in.

"That is not nice," Charlotte said, wagging a finger at Crimson.

The scolding was particularly effective from the cute druid, as Crimson snapped her mouth closed, glared at Charlotte for a long second, and then finally admitted defeat in the most Crimson way possible, which was looking away and refusing to acknowledge anything.

And while I loved Crimson, I decided I was going to ignore this rather than deal with it head on. So I ripped open a portal back to Haylon College and carried Charlotte through.