"So, what did he want to gain by deliberately offending him?" Timas questions Hana.
"Information, most likely," she wisely answers with a tone that's quite, uh… unusual for her. "Few people know how we fight, and Wolfy just showed him that he can instantly cast a bunch of spells."
"Sounds like you got baited," Alonso wryly remarks with a snort.
"I know, but I just wanted to fuck him up a bit," I casually reply.
"Understandable," Kyora grunts and nods.
--
The dragon complains that he doesn't want to hide his glorious characteristics again, so I just put on a cloak, though I still hide the horns so that I'm not as eye-catching as a shining knight in the middle of a den of thieves.
We leisurely return to the main hall, enjoying the view as we cross another bone bridge towards it, and once we finally arrive, we see Basile waiting for us with a pair of wereanimals in tow, a bunny girl and a male wolf, both wearing very little clothing.
The wolf man has beautiful red eyes and the olive skin and dark hair of an imperial while his build is lanky and made for speed. He's wearing knee-length shorts, an open black jacket with a high collar, and heavy leather boots, considerably scantily equipped for an adventurer.
The woman has short brown hair, beautiful dark green eyes, long, floppy brown, rabbit ears, and her build is similar to the wolf man's but shorter and with considerable thighs, their allure made even more delicious thanks to her black stockings. Her skin is pinkish but with countless brown spots spread all over, though most of them are small and concentrated on her back. She showcases her beauty by wearing fashionable high-heel boots, a pair of mini shorts that's barely more than panties, and an open black coat completely exposing her dark, lacy bra, though she doesn't have much in the breast department.
Together, they look like a pair of edgy swashbucklers straight out of a fantasy JRPG, which, I need to emphasize, is not how normal adventurers dress. They have literally zero armor, and they're even using sabres instead of normal straight-edged swords, which are specialized in slashing.
Basile was quite fast.
We approach the man in question, and he squints his eyes at me, seeming a bit confused about my new appearance, but he quickly controls himself and assumes a business-like grin.
"Ah, young sir. I've found guides that I'm sure will be to your pleasure," he greets and gives us a quick bow.
"I'm Nikolas," the wolf man casually announces, his eyes drawn to Hana's considerable cleavage.
"Penelope," the bunny girl follows and smiles, showing her bucket teeth.
Our side of the introductions is quite long, and then Lina negotiates the price to ensure that we aren't ripped off.
Nikolas nods at her in agreement, then turns to us and sternly announces out loud, "Alright, if we're going to Antreos Crea, there are some rules that we have to set down. First, is that Penelope and I don't fight, so if you can't protect yourselves, then you're fucked, simple as that. Second, if the monsters attack us, we'll run away and leave you alone, so make sure that you either use [Taunt] or never let a monster get close to us. Third, if you don't want to listen to our explanation about the monsters' powers, then don't complain when someone dies. And lastly, we never use the Ring of the Servant, so you have to accept that we'll leech some Experience."
"Hmm, this is acceptable," Yunia stoically answers for us.
"We'll protect you while they fight," Kyora affirms.
I turn my eyes to Penelope, and she jerks her head towards me as she instantly notices my gaze, her body seemingly tensing up from the intensity of my stare.
I hold the dragon back a little more firmly to avoid scaring her, then I calmly ask, "I don't know much about that part of the Labyrinth, but is your attire appropriate for where we're going?"
She smirks and lets out a low chuckle. "The monsters at Antreos hit so hard that it's pointless to rely on any sort of defense that doesn't involve running or dodging."
How lovely.
"This will be interesting," Timas remarks wryly.
--
While we finish negotiations, Kyora accosts a pair of suspicious-looking adventurers, who simply run off once she begins casting [Detect Evil]. This prompts a chase, but I just use [Telekinesis] on their feet and trip the two men.
After Kyora identifies herself as a Templar to the guards on watch, she's allowed to cast her spell, but it tells her nothing because the men aren't Wicked, so she uses a bounty plate, which reveals that they're just thieves.
That was quite dumb of them. If they hadn't run, Kyora wouldn't have had the justification to use the bounty plate, but I guess not everyone knows that [Detect Evil] doesn't reveal your "Crimes" section.
After we pay Basile his commission and give the guides half of the agreed amount, he leaves with a bow, then the duo takes us downstairs and to a [Gate] service.
"To Antreos Crea, please," Penelope requests to the old woman.
"Oooh~…?" She coos and motions for her to come closer, so Penelope leans forward, her floppy ears swaying cutely, then Alissa hears the mage whisper into the base of her long ear, "Dead meat, daring devils, or hidden nobles?"
A bit callous.
"Third with a bit of the second." Then the two share a quick smirk.
I summon a bird, then everyone steps on the magical weight scale that also measures the weight of the contents of our [Item Box]es, and once we're all on it, we're reminded that the golems have an army's worth of weapons with them.
"Apologies, Master," Ted announces through [Bind].
"Should we return to your 'Items'?" Suzy suggests.
"It's fine…" I tiredly reply. It'd just be too much work to make an excuse instead of simply paying it.
"I have just enough MP to get you all through," the old woman concernedly remarks as she looks very closely at the needle in the indicator, then she awkwardly frowns and glances at us. "Might as well close shop after this because I'm definitely going to be hit with overuse."
I sigh internally, and Alissa hands her a gold coin. "Keep the change," I mumble.
The mage's frown turns upside down, then she quickly pockets the coin and shrugs. "If you say so…"
She opens a [Gate] for us, and I send the bird through first to scout before we all cross through it, just to be safe.
We're taken to a drab square room made with gray bricks. There's a large golden double door behind us that takes you to the previous area, and a silver cylindrical elevator straight ahead with the words "Antreos Crea" carved on top of the door.
Once we're all in the elevator, Nikolas touches the symbol of a small downwards-pointing arrow carved in the wall and feeds it some mana, then we start going down, but the door doesn't close behind us, making me wish for dungeon OSHA, especially since I'm the one at the front.
"So, what's up with that weight," Penelope asks out loud to fill the silence.
"Jarn, take off the cloak," I order.
She un[Equips] it, and the two guides stare at her in surprise, both because of the unknown spell and her striking appearance.
"What the fuck…?" Nikolas reflexively mumbles while Penelope remains silent as her gaze flies repeatedly between Yunia and Jarn.
"She's a golem, and they're like Space mages for us. Think of an elemental, but permanent," I casually explain, enjoying their reactions a bit.
"And also capable of speech," Jarn wisely adds, and I hum.
"Why are their voices like that?" Alonso asks as he stares up at Jarn, looking a bit bored.
"I don't know how to make perfect vocal cords, and the golems are also quite unemotional, so they don't really use what they have to its fullest."
"Did you say 'they'?" Penelope confusedly questions.
Both Ted and Suzy wave at her, then begin floating in the air.
"Festivity's Balls! That's fucking adorable!" Penelope shouts and squeals.
Ciel smiles smugly, then tells Ted to start dancing with Suzy, and even Kyora's harem gets interested in watching the golems.
"Why is the metal one wearing clothes…?" Nikolas quietly asks as he stares at Jarn up and down.
"Because she'd be naked without them," I offhandedly reply and leave it at that.
"Uuuuh~…" The wolf man grunts in confusion, but after a long moment, he seems to get the implication and stops staring at her.
--
After three long minutes in the uncomfortably crowded elevator, the wall of concrete suddenly opens up, and I once again curse the lack of OSHA regulating the mandate for doors in elevators.
What we see ahead of us is a world of gray since there's absolutely nothing to see but the light gray mist that obscures our view as even the light illuminating the inconceivably large room comes from an unknown source.
Another minute, and the elevator reaches the floor, which is made of solid silver covered in a thin sheet of water, making the ground look like a mirror until disturbed by the ripples of our steps.
For some reason, I like this place.
It's suspiciously similar to one of Legado's trials, tho.
We can see about a stadium's length ahead before the mist takes over, making us feel quite small and insignificant when faced with the overwhelming nothingness.
I summon six birds as cover so that I can summon Hollys at the same time and order them to scout in all directions. Now that we're somewhere more private, I release my glorious black horns, then we [Equip] our Bastión armor and draw our weapons (except for Aoi). Gify pops out of existence, then reappears on Jarn's head, and she'll remain there until the golems begin to participate in the fights.
"I knew it…" Alissa overhears Penelope whisper to Nikolas.
"That's metal, but those patterns look elven…" He whispers back.
I turn towards them, and they stiffen, so I smile while applying [Sexual Charm] and appease their curiosity, "We're Crown Lords of the Western High Forest, so we'd appreciate it if you can keep quiet about our identities and skills after this is done."
The beautiful pupils of Penelope's eyes widen as she eagerly asks, "Are you an actual dragonkin? I've never seen one so… feral before." And Nikolas gives her a worried glance.
I smile smugly, then Aoi and I shift into our draconic forms, and the two guides take an instinctive step back, but the Templars are right behind them, so they have nowhere to run.
"Fuck, that's actually really impressive," Kyora mutters as she stares at me, and Poppy silently nods while Timas and Alonso shift uncomfortably, seemingly a bit jealous.
"I'm a weredragon, a new race you'll one day hear a lot about. She's an actual dragon who converted and gained a system," I explain, enjoying seeing Penelope's hairs stand on end from my seductive, manly, husky, intimidating draconic double voice.
I feel so tempted to slide out my moist, steamy, spiky, thick, long, superior draconic cock just to assert dominance, but the human pulls on the dragon's chains.
Aoi gives the curious rabbit a toothy, frightening smile, then [Equips] her armor.
But Nikolas' eyes suddenly go past us, and he stiffly warns us, "B-boasting should be left for later; your first challenge is arriving!"
Ahead of us, we can see two brown marble statues floating down while T-posing. They're both buff and bald humans without any facial features, but one is a man and the other is a woman.
Penelope hastily gives us a summary of these monsters, "Symbols of Mankind have tough skin and ridiculous strength. They can crush a dragonkin with a hug, but they aren't exactly fast, so your best bet is to bleed them to death. Don't use spears or anything that can get stuck because they will grab your weapon and then use it against you!"
Hana hits her shield with the hilt of her sword and makes a loud banging noise. "Come here you ugly bald fuckers so that Wolfy can rape both of your boring asses with his mighty cock!" She taunts with a fearsome grin.
To be honest, the bald woman has an amazing body, so I'd hesitate to call her ugly.
The moment the Symbols touch the water, they break into a robotic sprint towards us.
There's not a lot of time to make a plan, so Hana faces off with the man with the floppy dick, and Yunia takes the woman with bouncy tits.
Once they're close enough, the monsters start using kung-fu on the girls, but they just dodge all their attacks.
Hana lets a kick touch the blade of her sword, and the strength behind it surprises her. She'll definitely get a bent shield if she tries to take a direct hit.
Lina casts [Earth Wall] in front of Yunia, and the female bastard punches a hole right through it.
"I don't want to engage these monsters…" The little girl anxiously affirms. She doesn't have enough "Speed" to be confident that she can safely dodge their attacks.
"You'd have to use it on their feet to constantly disrupt their footing," I point out, but she's still not confident.
"We should each try to stand on our own against them," Alissa wisely suggests.
"W-what?!" Roxanne exclaims, almost choking on her spit.
"Well, maybe not you," I correct.
"These are boring. There's not much to be learned from them," Yunia annoyedly points out, then starts turning her opponent's brown skin into ribbons. These monsters show no pain, but they bleed like humanoids, and a pool of vivid scarlet begins to form at their feet as it mixes with the thin sheet of water.
We switch it up, and I face one while Aoi takes the other. There's not really that much for me to learn from this since I'm already a speedy boy, but Aoi isn't.
She conjures a ball of water and keeps it floating above her on standby, then lets the male Symbol come closer to try out her halberd against him.
She slices open his shoulder, and he immediately tries to grab the weapon, so she pulls it back, but she isn't quick enough to attack again to keep the monster away, and he enters striking range.
He kicks her thigh, and we hear a crunching sound as the armor cracks, making her stagger due to the unbelievable weight behind the blow, then her ball of water slams onto his head so hard that we hear another crunching sound as he falls face-first on the floor.
Ciel takes over for me, so I go to Aoi and repair her armor. The padding absorbed all of the shock, so she didn't feel that much of the impact aside from the force pushing her to the side.
"I've never seen a dragon use a weapon before," Penelope whispers, slightly bewildered.
The male Symbol slowly gets up, seemingly concussed, and I just stab him in the back of the head to give myself the time I need to repair her armor. I'm glad to know that our weapons can at least go through their skulls.
Aoi stares at Ciel, observing how she keeps the female Symbol away by making use of both her greatly superior range and the monster's lack of any sort of defense.
Then it's Alissa's turn, and she has almost as much ease as Yunia did in dodging the monster's attacks. Yet, even though she can dodge, her arrows are useless against this monster except for [Sapping Seeds] and [Arrow of Annihilation]. Even [Discharge] isn't very effective.
Then we let Roxanne try out some spells on the Symbol. [Ice Lance] pierces the female monster's thick skin, but she doesn't slow down even slightly due to her stupidly high mass. A strong [Water Wall] is the only thing that can stop her because she just ignores any burn caused by [Fire Magic].
[Explosion] would instantly kill the Symbol, but we let Lina face it on her own first.
[Earth Wall] just gets kicked or punched and blown into pieces, and Lina isn't confident that she wouldn't get punted like a ball if she were hit, even if she were to bolt herself to the floor with [Earth Magic].
Quick, small [Earth Wall]s at the monster's feet do the trick, though, while also being relatively low-cost mana-wise, but they have to be directly under the Symbol's feet since trying to trip it simply doesn't work.
"The Symbols are the most common monsters around here, right?" I question our guides.
"Yes. There are variants, but their inhuman strength is the common characteristic for them," Penelope helpfully answers.
"They never come in large numbers, but it's the variants' special abilities that make them dangerous," Nikolas sternly adds.
I could stare at Penelope all day, so it's a shame that Nikolas has to tag along. I just want to watch this rabbit woman sweat and work those muscular legs of hers.
Roxanne blows one of the Symbol's knees off, and Lina buries her hammer's spike into the back of the monster's head, but before Lina can pull it back, the Symbol grabs the shaft and rips it out of her hands.
Lina just re[Equip]s her polehammer and spikes the monster's head again, then Alissa sends an [Arrow of Annihilation] through its skull, finally killing the female Symbol.
"How annoying," Lina grumbles, and we begin to understand why so few people come this way.
I turn to Penelope and ask, "Now what?"
She points to the bodies. "They'll split into four to seven Symbols, now with weapons and magic. Be careful of archers and mages. The former has a bow as powerful as a ballista, and the latter doesn't use system magic."
"Oh! I think I get what's happening," Ciel suddenly exclaims, but there's no time for that now. The girls immediately take a step back, and we assume combat positions.
The Symbols' bodies melt into mud, but their blood pulls a T-1000, and a total of seven shapes start to grow out of the red pools. It's a freaky experience for Alissa since she senses their presences sprout from nothing and then steadily grow into seven fully-fledged Symbols.
They reach max size in just four seconds, and then their red skin shifts into human-colored flesh. These ones have actual faces and hair, but they aren't as buff, and they're still all naked, so more floppy penises, though at least the female Symbols are pretty hot.
Two sword and shields, two greatswords, two archers, and a mage. Melee-heavy, which will be annoying to deal with.
Lina casts [Sap Power] on the four melee monsters and remains at the center of our formation, but she doesn't actively engage them to conserve her mana.
Hana and Yunia face off with the shield users at the center while Ciel and Aoi go for the greatsword users on each side. I'll remain as a wildcard while Alissa and Roxanne will try to snipe their ranged. Using the golems would make this too easy, and I'd rather not reveal how they fight to anyone for now.
Fighting the shield users is slow and methodical, so the real fight will be against the greatswords. I create six sword-wielding tentacles and slide to Aoi's side because I think Ciel can handle herself.
"The fuck is that…?" Nikolas mumbles.
Without an opponent between me and the ranged, I become an easy target for them, so one of the archers takes aim at me, then [Battlefield Perception] triggers, and I dodge, but the arrow tears through one of my tentacles at a stupidly high speed.
Momentarily off balance, I don't notice the suspicious little wave of water shooting towards me, but Roxanne does, and [Battlefield Perception] triggers again.
With her guidance, I cast [Earth Wall] in front of the wave, then I sense it being pierced by something as thin as a needle, which gives me enough time to easily dodge the attack while I use two sword tentacles to slice into the flank of one of the greatsword Symbols.
Aoi slams the back of the Symbol with her conjured ball of water, pushing it forward, then she jams her halberd into its chest.
With one hand, the monster grabs the shaft and pulls on it, but Aoi simply lets go and re[Equip]s it, teleporting it back to her hands. Since she has successfully distracted it, I carve two more deep channels into its skin, now on the thighs.
More suspicious waves come, and the girls are forced to throw spells at their opponents to safely disengage from them so that they can successfully dodge the stealthy water needles.
One of the archers spots an opening and sends an arrow through our lines. Roxanne reflexively casts [Water Wall] while her [Water Spirit] pushes her out of the way, and she successfully dodges the attack, but that was too close for comfort.
Aoi takes note from the mage and spreads her conjured water behind the Symbols, assuming control of it and preventing the mage from using the needle attack again.
Alissa sneaks over to Ciel's side and starts exchanging arrows with the second archer, who retreats further away so that it has enough time to dodge the projectiles. [Explosion] would make things too easy, so Roxanne has her fun using the first archer as target practice, switching between the super-fast [Ice Lance] and the more maneuverable [Fireball] to keep it on its toes.
Lina's [Sap Power] seems to quickly produce a noticeable effect as the melee Symbols all slow down. Their bodies are extremely heavy, so the spell's gradual reduction of their "Strength" must be making it harder for them to move.
A strong gust of wind blows across the battlefield, and the gray mist above us darkens, then a light rain starts to fall as the mage Symbol levitates upwards. Aoi becomes enraged, wanting to compete against that mage one-on-one, but she still has an opponent to defeat.
The mage is now an easy target for Alissa, so she quick-fires a few [Arrow of Annihilation]s. The monster manages to make them veer off-target, as if it's using [Dead Zone], so Alissa switches to physical arrows, and though they're influenced by the wind, it's still possible for her to compensate.
Yunia begins pushing back her opponent first, and to not get left behind, Hana uses [Draconic Body] to boost her "Strength," allowing her to begin to match the Symbol's might as it grows weaker.
I take over against Aoi's opponent and free her up to face off with the mage, which is now being turned into a pincushion. Alissa has filled its body with so many [Sapping Seed] arrows that she feels like she's overflowing with energy.
It's still not safe for Aoi to take flight, so she has a magical wrestling match with the mage, successfully disrupting the thunderstorm from growing any further by making use of her superior knowledge of physics rather than trying to compete through pure "Willpower" or "Magic Power," which would most likely end with her defeat.
The archers are still firing at us, and they're too dangerous for my taste, so I cripple my opponent by heavily wounding both of its legs, then I cast [Invisibility] on myself and leap towards the archers.
They both immediately turn their heads to look in my direction, but they don't seem to know my exact position.
I land right in front of the first archer and slice it up with all of my weapons. Its skin is too thick for me to decapitate it in one strike, so I aim for its muscles and arteries, crippling it enough that it drops its bow.
[Battlefield Perception] triggers, and I use [Muscle Explosion] to bring up my shield, but even with [Wind Shield] at full power, I still sense the arrow slide along it, leaving a long scratch on its immaculate surface.
The second archer pays for that distraction by receiving an [Ice Lance] right in its chest. It doesn't penetrate deeply enough to kill it, but now its pectoral muscles are damaged, and it struggles to draw another arrow.
The first archer takes advantage of my moment of distraction to jump forward, and it manages to blindly grab a hold of a tentacle and my sword wrist.
Fucking-…!
The tenacious bastard uses its new leverage to jump again, and then smacks both of the soles of its feet against my body, but I undo the tentacle and use [Wind Shield] to push it to the side, diverting its attack away from me.
Its feet fly past me, showing me its back and round ass, then I focus all of my "Magic Power" into [Telekinesis] to push the Symbol further to the side, right into the path of an incoming arrow.
The stupidly fast projectile pierces right through its chest, but it gets slowed down enough that [Wind Shield] fully neutralizes it, then the Symbol falls to the metallic floor, almost taking me with it.
It still has a firm grip on my wrist, so I use all of my tentacles to quickly chop its hand off before it can try to fuck me up again.
I feel a "presence" turn its gaze towards me, and [Battlefield Perception] triggers once again, but this time, I don't have enough time to dodge as a weak lightning bolt almost immediately courses through my body.
This angers me more than it damages my HP, and before it can try again, Aoi takes flight and tackles the mage since the second archer has been successfully disabled by Roxanne.
The melee monsters are all too weakened now to pose a danger to the girls, the archers can't use their bows, and the mage has lost too much vitality to stop Aoi from tearing it apart limb from limb, so all that's left now is the cleanup.
I turn to our guides and feel my draconic pride rising at the sight of their awed expressions. While the fight wasn't dire enough to give me a boner, this view certainly does.
It's time to seduce Thunder Thighs.
--
--
Hall of Fame of Patrons
The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:
Prince PreownedFIN.
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Lord BlindTactic.
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Noble d3235.
Noble Frank de Jong.
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