The Protagonist System

44 Dungeon Blasting

It was a massacre. We blew through Floor 13 in barely fifteen minutes and descended to the next floor. Even Aiz showed shock on her face as she looked at us and then at her orange-yellowish armor as if it was a divine gift. It took me ten minutes to make the teleportation circle on Floor 14 and we blasted off again.

Twenty minutes later, we were on Floor 15. Ten minutes and another teleportation circle later, we were off again. Thirty minutes, Floor 16. Forty minutes, Floor 17. Forty-five minutes and we were on Floor 18 and the rest break where no monsters were generated. That was three hours of work and we were already at the standard rest stop where adventurers who couldn't continue usually stopped and stayed.

To my surprise, they believed that they couldn't get back to the surface without support, which meant that the transportation circle was going to be very important to their way of life. They had access to the above and below floors, which meant more expensive monster crystals and drops. If they could get them to the surface, that would increase not only their personal wealth, it would increase their reputations.

We avoided going to the city that had been established there, because the method I used hadn't been introduced yet. It also meant that anyone living there that didn't want to go back to the surface would try to destroy the easy exit. It was the easiest way to control who left the level.

With no monsters or creature drops on that level, Aiz, Tsubaki, Lili, and I easily traversed the distance of a quarter of Orario to the exit to the next level and went down to continue our trek through the dungeon. I made another transportation circle that still took ten minutes to construct, and we continued on.

It was honestly shocking how quickly we moved through the levels. Even during the times we stumbled across a large ore deposit by chance, we hadn't hung around long after clearing it out. Lili and I working with enchanted picks and had made short work of adding the ore to her backpack and we moved on.

Tsubaki kept changing out her weapons and her occasional laugh let us know that her weapons were performing well above her normal expectations. Aiz on the other hand, had used her new sword like it was a hot knife through butter. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could block it.

Hephaestus had really outdone herself with its construction and Aiz whispered to me during our rest stop on Floor 22 that she loved it almost as much as she loved me.

I honestly couldn't let that comment go and made love to her right there. Both Lili and Tsubaki watched and made comments about better moves to use and how Aiz should respond. Both I and Aiz took their advice and we had a great time making each other get off as much as possible. It was a lot, because we spent almost an hour there having fun.

When we were done, both Tsubaki and Lili looked proud and complimented us on doing our best. That set me off and I laughed. Tsubaki and Lili quickly joined in. Aiz gave us a curious look and I explained what they meant about being proud of our performance. Aiz made an odd sound, almost a snort, and then softly laughed.

It surprised all of us, Aiz included. She looked surprised and stared at me, so I did her again slowly and told her that no matter what happened, I loved her and she would always have a special place in my heart. Aiz looked conflicted, so I kissed her and reassured her that whatever she felt was okay.

If she felt happy while being with me, that was normal. If she felt more than that, it was also normal, because it was her first time experiencing things like that. Aiz looked thoughtful and then nodded in understanding. She didn't voice anything out loud and only kissed me a bit more passionately than she normally did.

That was a huge breakthrough with how she normally reacted to anything emotional around her and I told her that she was very brave to accept how she felt. We had supper before preparing for travelling down to the next level and then continued on our trek to go as deep into the dungeon as quickly as possible.

*

Hestia had the brilliant idea to post a quest on the quest board in the Guild Hall for a healer to teach someone else how to cast healing magic. She was surprised when she received a response almost immediately. The scraggly man gave his supposed credentials and then demanded the payment upfront, which set off a ton of alarms in Hestia's mind.

Thankfully, she had one of Hephaestus' executives there with her at the guild and the woman whispered in her ear that the man was a fraud. He didn't have any healing magic and was trying to trick her.

Hestia, being the nice person she was, called one of the guild representatives over and asked them to assess the man for the qualifications her quest had clearly posted. The man almost fainted as the guild representative verbally tore him apart and then called over the guards to have the man 'dealt with' for trying to defraud an official client. He would never be seen again.

Over the afternoon and evening, several others had approached her about the quest and none of them had any actual healing magic and just wanted the high payout. Most didn't even know anyone that actually had healing magic, which was quite disappointing, because Hestia knew that her Bell wouldn't have asked her to look for someone if it wasn't important.

Hestia went back to the Hephaestus Familia compound with a sigh and a faint hope to find someone by the time her Bell returned to her. Unbeknownst to her, the request had been passed by word of mouth by several adventurers during the day and the reward for completing it had spread fairly far, including the pub that adventurers normally frequented, The Hostess of Fertility.

One of the barmaids there, Ryuu Lion, felt something inside of her clench, as if she had missed something important. She had avoided anything to do with adventurers for years, ever since her party had sacrificed themselves for her, and she had retired and become a barmaid. The simple life was all she thought she deserved.

Her mind was occupied for the rest of the night as she wondered why someone would want to learn how to cast healing magic, even if it was from an elf and was conditional upon them being within a forest or green pasture. She would decide the next morning that it was worth wasting her time for a few hours to see if the subject of the quest could actually learn it and not be a waste of her time.

*

I woke up at the bottom of a pile of naked bodies. The three women with me had seemed to not want to sleep alone, even if our bedrolls couldn't hold more than two people. It had taken some creative magic to attach three bedrolls together and still have them be functional, especially because all three of them wanted to have some fun before going to sleep.

It was adorable that they wanted to be both first and last, making me work very hard to make sure that each of them received the attention they believed they deserved. It was a job I was grateful to have and fulfilled to the best of my ability. The three satisfied smiles before they had fallen asleep let me know that I had succeeded in the nearly impossible task.

Now it was breakfast time and I slid out of the modified bedroll and prepped the cooking things for the food. I had the eggs done and was working on the sausages when Aiz woke up like a shot. One second she was dead asleep and the next she was up on her feet with her sword in her hand.

“Nice reaction time.” I said and handed her a plate with eggs and one sausage on it. “Eat.”

Aiz stuck her sword into the ground where she had put it before and accepted the plate. She sat beside me and leaned against me as she ate. I kept cooking and handed her two more sausages when they were done and she hummed her thanks.

“Good morning.” Lili said and sat up as she rubbed her eyes. “What time is it?”

“It's half-past the ass-crack of dawn.” I joked and handed her a plate of food.

Lili made a half-snort and half-cough sound and sat on my other side.

“Too sleepy to laugh?” I asked her and she nodded before she started eating.

Tsubaki woke up next and she sat up with one eye open and one eye closed. That seemed to be a thing with her in the mornings. I handed her a plate and she accepted it without a word and started eating. I finished up cooking and quickly ate my own food and gave them second helpings. Not surprisingly, we all finished at around the same time.

We quickly dressed and packed up our base camp and readied ourselves for a full day of dungeon diving. The three women gave me a look, as if asking me for something, and I nodded and stepped back from them as I pulled my guitar out from my backpack.

After another empowering song about me being their backup and always being behind them to support them, we took off and continued our travels through the dungeon levels to place as many teleportation circles as possible.

*

Ryuu Lion was surprised when she showed up at the Hephaestus Familia compound and the person she was supposed to teach wasn't there. She talked to the Goddess Hestia and was again surprised when she heard the story and when he would return. Funnily enough, it would be after her shift at the pub and she said she would return then for the lesson.

As she walked back to the pub, Ryuu thought over the story she had been told. It was unbelievable. There was no way for anyone to gain three levels in as many weeks, even if they did do something amazing or horrible to gain the attention of a god or goddess. They would still need to gain experience and the power to do so.

The magical backlash was an interesting problem, though. It got her mind going and intrigued her. How did a boy from a mountain village gain so much magical power that it caused him damage if he cast anything above a single tier or too quickly for his regeneration to handle it? It was mind-boggling and very, very interesting.

Ryuu worked throughout the rest of the day, almost on automatic pilot, as she pondered the problem and how to deal with it.

*

Aiz was starting to like their forced breaks to eat, rest, and have sex. She never had anyone treat her so well or showed her that they loved her so much in her life, not even her own parents. She had been quite young when her mother died and that had devastated her and stunted her emotional growth.

Being handed over to the Loki Familia to be trained and raised by a very strict elf woman, had made Aiz block off nearly all of her emotions that remained. She needed to stay detached from others or she would never become strong enough to avenge her mother's death at the claws of the One Eyed Dragon. Or so she thought.

Aiz had learned a lot from her teachers and instructors, except for one thing. Everyone needed someone to love them. She hadn't realized she had been missing that until she had spent some time with Bell. It wasn't an ache or anything, it just felt like she wanted something that she didn't understand, then Bell explained it to her. He explained everything to her.

He didn't lie and told her about everything that she wanted to know about. It was refreshing and new and made her feel warm inside, because he cared so much about her that he would tell her anything in as simple of terms as he could... and she understood it.

For the first time in her life, Aiz understood.

Aiz also hummed out her pleasure as she orgasmed again. Having Bell inside of her while her ankles touched her ears, was giving her two kinds of stretches, and her mind and body enjoyed every second of it. He knew exactly how to get her off quickly and as he filled her once more, Aiz felt sad that tomorrow would be the last time she would feel his love.

Neither Tsubaki nor Lili protested when she asked to stay by Bell's side for the night when they finally reached Floor 37. In fact, they seemed surprised she had asked. Aiz mentally shrugged at that and cuddled into Bell's side after kissing him goodnight.

They had another early morning coming and would really need to push themselves if they were to cross three Orario city-sized floors to reach Floor 40 by suppertime, Bell's self-imposed return time. Even with them limiting themselves to only the loot drops from the monsters, they had already earned several million valis worth of monster crystals and rare creature items.

*

Hestia felt nervous all day as she waited for her Bell to return to her. She would have almost no time to spend with him, because she had found the magic tutor that he wanted. Only a single lesson could be taught before the tribunal was called and she hoped her Bell could learn what he needed.

Someone shouted that the teleportation circle activated and Hestia was out of the main building and ran to where it was. She slowed down and came to a stop as she felt his magic. She felt it. Hestia stared at the four people standing in front of her and it was like she had never met them before, because they seemed so different.

“My Goddess.” Bell's deep voice almost reverberated through her. “We have returned.”

Hestia shivered at the intense look in his eyes. She wanted him. She wanted... she wanted to be his.

“We need our Falna updated.” Bell said and motioned to the others. “Tsubaki, Hephaestus is on her way out of her office. Lili will have your split ready by the time you're done.”

Tsubaki gave him a quick kiss and seemed to disappear as she ran off to get her Falna updated.

“My Bell?” Hestia whispered at the shocking sight. “What happened?”

“My experiments with both making a party and boosting them has proven to be quite overpowered.” Bell said and scooped Hestia up into his arms. “We don't have a lot of time for me to explain.”

Before Hestia could ask what he meant, he nodded to Lili and Aiz and the three of them blurred and reappeared in Tsubaki's room.

“Aiz, you first.” Bell said and put Hestia down. They had moved so fast and stopped again that Hestia hadn't been able to enjoy it.

Aiz slipped off her armor pieces and pulled her bodysuit down to expose her breasts, then laid down on the bed. Hestia shook her head at the casual nudity and climbed onto the bed to update her newest Familia member's Falna. After a few minutes of manipulating the girl's experience, she was shocked to see that Aiz was past Level 7 and was almost Level 8.

Hestia's eyes snapped to Bell and he smiled and nodded at Lili. She finished with Aiz and copied her stats for her, then a topless Lili climbed onto the bed. She ended up as a Level 4, which was unprecedented for a support person to reach, let alone so quickly. The short Goddess had shaky hands as she copied down her stats and gave it to the girl.

Bell took Lili's place on the bed and Hestia was nervous as she climbed onto him and sat on his butt. She wasn't sure what she was expecting as she added a drop of blood to his back. It took her several minutes to work on his experience and when she finished, she stopped breathing.

“I'm Level 7 as well.” Bell said, sure of it.

“Y-y-yes.” Hestia said, shakily. “You also... have two new skills.”

Lili gasped and Aiz looked interested.

“Bard, which lets you produce various effects with your magical instrument.” Hestia said as she copied everything down. “The other one is Command (Support). You double any experience gained when people follow your orders while supporting them.”

Bell accepted the paper when Hestia handed it to him. “I figured that's what was happening.”

“You went up 4 levels.” Lili said with awe in her voice.

“You went up 2.” Bell said and climbed off of the bed. He handed his sheet to Aiz and she immediately compared it to hers.

“I am above you.” Aiz said with an odd tone in her voice.

“By almost a full level, I suspect. I just barely qualified, thanks to the three of you working so hard.” Bell said and pulled on his bodysuit and the rest of his armor. “I have a magic lesson to get to. Please stay with our Goddess and help her come to grips with things. I'll come and get her when it's time.”

Aiz nodded and handed both sheets to Hestia. The short goddess stared at the ridiculous numbers.

“Lili, get Tsubaki's share ready.” Bell said and bent to give her a kiss, then gave one to Aiz. He kissed Hestia's cheek and left the room with a small gust of wind.

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