DD 304 Ch 27 (Patreon)

Crimson leaned forward and banged her fist on the table. "Loot." She banged again. "Loot." She banged a third time, and this time Felin and Misha joined her, until she had the whole table banging and chanting, "Loot! Loot! Loot!"

It was an interesting image of very attractive women sitting around in silken nightrobes going feral for loot.

I couldn't help but sigh. "Really?" I looked at Crimson, who leaned back, savoring her small victory and taking a sip with a deep, satisfied sigh.

"I can be bought for the low price of loot," she said, making the word pop from her lips.

"Alright. Well, I don't have everything. You all did some looting, correct?" I said, flicking at my CID. Most of my time had been on portal duty, but I’d managed to nab a few pieces after the raid. Of course, I wasn’t so crass as to loot mid combat.

“Me!” Des piped up, her own CID out in front of her, swiping through it with the gleeful smile of a child on Christmas morning. "After we took down the dwarves, we found several storehouses in our section." She grinned and began dumping piles of manastones onto the table.

Felin picked up her Irish cream so it didn't get swept off the table.

"Manastones are good and all," Elysara said, staring at the overflowing pile, "but we can do better than that." She pulled out raw ores with a faint greenish hue and began stacking a pile that went from the floor to the base of her chair.

"Valuable," I said, gesturing at the materials, "but somehow I don't think any of us is a blacksmith."

Elysara pouted at my failure to praise her loot.

"That's why you need cold, hard weapons." Felin pulled several out and slapped them on the table, though most of them were heavy two-handed ones that didn't catch my fancy. I peered over them, struggling, though Penny seemed intent on snagging one of the broadswords and turning it over in her hands.

None of us so much as flinched as a sword capable of removing heads swung in her wrist around the table.

I smiled and placed a find of my own on the table, which was a long, flowing dress.

Des jumped out of her seat to snag it, only to scowl. "Who makes a dress with agility on it?"

I barked a laugh. "I have no idea."

"It's terrible, isn't it?" Des wrinkled her nose.

"It really is." I said she wasn't going to wear it, and her eyes lit on Crimson, who only scoffed.

"It's not red." Crimson stated, as if that were a thorough answer in itself.

"Well, she does have a point," I said, doing my best to hide my smirk. Crimson had a very narrow idea of what was fit to wear.

Selene picked it up and held it to her chest, turning around in it. "I think it looks lovely. The color suits me. And as for stats, well, I'm already on Ken's… second child," she said, rubbing her hands together with a sparkle of mischief in them.

Crimson choked on her beer and sputtered some onto the table while pounding on her chest. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me," she said, coughing into her hands.

"No jokes here. We are on our second," Selene said, holding up her hands as the dress disappeared into her CID. "And while the loot was scarce amongst the dwarves, I did find this." She produced a dagger and held it out to me.

I snatched it and twirled it in my hand. It was a little on the long side with a sixteen inch blade that pinched in just above the hilt before flaring to a wider tip. I held it up and spun it around to test the balance. I had to admit it was an epic blade at level 57. With my recent increase in levels, I hadn't quite found the gear to match it yet.

"Thank you," I said to Selene, using the dagger to give her a sharp salute. "Do take care of my second child." I nearly choked on those words but held it in, knowing she was getting great joy out of teasing the others about already getting her second round of stats from me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a small spark of competition bloom in several of the eyes around the table. I knew deep down that I was going to be made to regret that comment. But for now, I had a shiny new blade.

"What else do you all have?" I said, looking around the table.

Penny surprised me and pulled out a shield, offering it to Fayeth. "Even though I'm a tank, shields have never been my thing," she said, holding it out.

Fayeth snatched it up, gave it a good look, and grinned before dismissing her previous shield, which had been strapped to her back, replacing it with the new offering. "I'll treat it well," she promised.

"You'd better." Penny wagged a finger at her. "Tanks need to take care of their equipment more than anyone. Though if you want, I did find a spare." She pulled another one out of her CID with a grin.

I couldn't help but shake my head. "How many more are you going to pull out?"

"Just a few. I found a whole stash of them," Penny winked, then handed the shield over to me. "Maybe you should give that to Helen. I'm sure it would make her incredibly happy," she said, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

The rest of the table wasn't quite so polite. Des roared with laughter, and Charlotte hid her face, leaning to the side while her shoulders shook.

“You should really see if you can’t cheer her up, who knows you might actually thaw her out.” Crimson suggested while barely containing her laughter.

“And your hell will freeze over.” Misha barely got out between her own laughs.

“And I will give up cream!” Feline added, taking a shot of it for emphasis.

"Yeah, yeah, get it out," I said, waving a hand, and a few of them didn't hold back, laughing boisterously. "Well, if you're all done having fun, I do need to go see the UG tonight."

That caused several of them to clam up immediately, in a way that was very satisfying.

“Do you have to go?” Des pawed at me.

"Yeah, unfortunately I have to get this part done. Control of the UG isn't all fun and games. Though you're welcome to come with me," I offered, and to no surprise, they all suddenly found anything and everything else in the room far more interesting.

"I'll see all of you later," I said pointedly, meeting their gazes, before walking out with my head held high. But I’d only taken a few more steps before Selene came rushing to catch up to me.

"Hold up," she said, panting. "Let me at least come and help you entertain my mother."

I smiled. "I think I would appreciate that."

And before I could say more, she took the initiative and ripped open a portal for the two of us to enter. We were off to visit the UG.

***

"Ken, lovely to see you." President Amatto stood from her desk and held out a hand. I shook it with a smile, Selene clinging to my arm, and having thankfully changed out of the silk night robe back to her school uniform. The grin on Selene’s face was a mile wide and reflected her mother's.

“We’re lovely, mother. Just blowing off a little steam after the raid before coming here.”

"Well, I'm glad to see you two are doing well." The new President of the UG sat down at the familiar desk. It seemed almost like the office itself was her way of gloating. Everything but the desk was changed. It was cleaned off, everything cleared away, almost to draw more attention to the surface like a pelt hung above the mantelpiece. It served as a constant reminder to anyone who walked in that she had taken this position from its previous owner.

"So, what are we in for? Is there much to handle on the wrap up of the raid?" I sat down on the couch, Selene not hesitating to join me a moment later. I knew I’d be needed here, but I didn’t really want to participate in those meetings I’d been a part of in the past where the UG executives grilled me on my actions.

"We did have a few public meetings and a few broader-scope meetings, before calling you in for this. I would hate to bore a major shareholder of the UG with all the tedium of our questioning." She grinned like she’d read my mind and stood from her desk, walking to a small bar cart in the corner. "Drink?" she asked, lifting a crystal glass and wagging it back and forth.

"None for me right now, but I'd happily hear the recap." I told her. No doubt by the end of this I was going to be asked to make decisions, so it would be best if I did so while being as informed as possible.

"Of course. Perhaps it's not the time to drink," she said, setting the glass down and pouring her own.

"Not going to offer any to me, Mom?" Selene asked.

Her mother smirked. "I assume you'll have your own after-party. Most guilds are having one tonight to celebrate the victory and remember those who fell," she said with a wave of her hand, sitting down and leaning against the front of her desk, swirling the drink absently, ice clinking in the glass.

"Unfortunately, we did lose fourty-two adventurers." Amatto shook her head and took a sip. "We'll of course be honoring their sacrifice with a bounty paid to their families, or to their guild if they had none."

"I'm sorry for their loss," I said quickly, truly feeling the weight of all those lives. This wasn’t a number that was so big I couldn’t conceptualize it. These adventurers had just marched with me and I knew if I saw their files, I’d recognize each one.

"I'm sure they would appreciate that," Amatto said. "But we must persist. Most of those lost either had a threadspawn inserted into them and were handled as hostiles during the event, or they were separated from the group, which is a truly unfortunate occurrence. But we knew going in there would be some loss of life. I'm glad we minimized it as much as we did. It does bring several uncomfortable accusations down on the UG, but don't worry, Ken. We'll weather them fine. The UG has dealt with far worse over the years."

I wasn't overly surprised, but I did enjoy simply getting the information this easily, rather than having it piecemealed out to me. “Well, it isn’t all bad news, right?”

"The good news," she went on, "is that all threadspawn have been removed from that safe zone, and we're able to push forward with several other operations. At present we're doing everything we can to ensure the safe zones closest to humanity have been cleared. For that, we'd request your assistance, Ken." She said the last with a sickly-sweet smile, the kind everyone used when asking me for a favor.

"Of course," I said calmly. They’d want my [Eyes of Wisdom] to do several passes over the maps. After starting a conflict with the Threadspawn, they didn’t want to leave room for their retaliation.

"Perfect." She clapped her hands together. "We'll have some of our people come by soon so we can get all the information in a single session." She paused. "Though I am curious… do you have any sense of how the Orkai might react to the outcome?" she asked, with a small squint and no small amount of hope.

"We'll see how they did on their end, though I rarely worry about the Arbiters. But I doubt they’ll be too upset with us if we report that one extremely high level Threadspawn escaped," I said, confident those massive Orkai wouldn't struggle with something like this.

Amatto seemed relieved. "After what we experienced with that incredibly powerful threadspawn, many here have been shaken. I'd deeply prefer fear not continue to intrude on the UG's day-to-day operations. People have been worried about the Orkai reaction on top of the Threadspawn thread."

I gave her a slow nod of understanding. "Will you be doing anything in particular with myself, or the rest of my class?"

"Not only your class. We'll be doing our best to raise the spirits of as many of the administrators who participated as possible. That means we'll hold several adventure-centered events in the coming days." She shot me a quick smile, and I couldn't help but shake my head.

"I suppose that's the best way to raise everyone's spirits, isn't it?”

“There's a reason every business in the world throws pizza parties, though it can certainly be abused to where it stops working, it is effective at boosting morale." She chuckled, and I shook my head at the comparison.

"So, no pizza party for me?" I asked.

"Well, if you want one, all you had to do was say so." Amatto and I shared a laugh. "Will you be able to report back once you've talked to the Orkai?" she asked.

I gave her a slow nod, understanding how important it was to her. "It will be done. Soon," I promised. "The last thing anyone wants is to drag this out." Our failure as it was wasn’t something I wanted to report out, but it needed to be done. Not to mention it showed our sincerity when it came to working with the Orkai to keep the dungeon orderly.

Selene bounced out of her chair and hugged the director. "Mom, stop being so cold. Ken is family now," she insisted with a huff.

"Of course he is." The director kissed her daughter on the cheek. "But family requires at least a little control."

"Control wouldn't be the word I'd use," I said pointedly.

"Of course it wouldn't be, dear. You’ve already knocked my daughter up twice," President Amatto said to me, then kissed Selene on the top of her head.

My jaw nearly hit the floor.

"Be nice to Ken. I'll be good," Selene promised in a way that somehow made me doubt her words.

"I would. But we do have business to attend to. After all, while Ken is family, he's also a major shareholder of the UG. I can give him some favorability, but not too much."

"Well, in that case… how about that drink?" I said, and relaxed on the couch as Selene peeled herself off her mother and jumped up to make it, while her mother scowled at me.

"Men do better if you make them work a little for it," President Amatto said, only for Selene to wave a dismissive hand over her shoulder.

"You're welcome to such games, but I wouldn't dare play them with Ken. Not when I’m already expecting."

The director eyed me, and I gave her my best look of utter innocence. And part of that was true. I had no idea what game the two of them were playing, and felt somewhat caught in the middle.

I sat back and enjoyed the drink Selene brought me while Amatto began to pull up several, more detailed documents to go over with me.