Chapter 28

Virina didn't joke when she said everything would be paid for. The Academy has a shop that 'sell' everything you need to Dungeon dive. Well, it's mostly basic supplies. Tents, dry food, ropes, torches, bags and satchel. We don't really need those anyway. We have my Space to put our stuffs in. But Anna and Eliza still took one each because 'if we get separated, we're screwed'.

That makes sense actually. I wonder if it's possible to make something that function like my Space. A bracelet or a necklace maybe. Sadly I'm far from being capable of crafting anything. Maybe we can find someone to do it? And I would help on the space element part?

Each of us stocked up in water and dry food until at least their bags were almost bursting. I still have plenty of space though. And I intend to get the monster parts that are valuable this time. The last Dungeon I was a bit... Distracted. And I also didn't know I could have taken those Gobelin's ears to sell. They aren't worth much, but it's still sellable.

We're now in front of the 'Dungeon room'. I didn't call it like that, it's written on the signboard.

As we enter we are greeted by an enormous room. It should easily be almost the size of a football field. I'm still impressed how that seemingly 'simple' building can contain so many wonders. The magic of the space element I guess.

On one side of the room is a row of Dungeon portals. In front of each of them is multiple students either recruiting or doing their last preparations. I don't really know how the Academy managed to get so many Dungeons in one place. Well, they did tell us it's a powerhouse in the past that could move the portals and put them here. I just don't know how strong they were. Based on what I learned, it took a very long time to get that much. Most of that time was spent looking for suitable Dungeons and testing them so it's not too dangerous. Of course deaths can still happens. Especially if a team try to challenge something too strong for them.

On the other side is a bunch of stalls maned by other students. On the stalls are some monster parts, gears found in the Dungeons. Sometimes it's simply services like porters, healers, tanks, etc.

The one we planned to dive didn't need any of that. Not really at least. We made our way to it, my ears never stopping to twitch in every directions with how noisy this place is.

It doesn't take much time to reach our destination. In front of the portal is a wooden sign indicating the monsters encountered inside and the type of Dungeon we would be entering.

All those informations were given by that powerhouse. Seems like they really wanted to create a place for training after they passed away.

Our sign indicate that the monsters we'll see are mostly found in caverns. So giant rats, giant bats, giant spiders. I shudder at that last one.

Virina I hate you. Why spiders?!

I turn around to look at the two girls.

"Hm... Can't we... Go in another one? I uuuh... Please not spiders..." My voice is quiet, almost inaudible in the noise around us.

My tail is betraying my nervousness and fear of the eight-legged monstrosities. Well, I don't know if they are monstrous yet. But 'giant' spiders aren't giving me much hope.

After they've read the sign they each made a sound of realization, then turned to me with warm smiles on their faces. I take a step back, narrowing my eyes.

"I don't like those smiles." I say, wary.

"We said nothing." Anna answered.

"Yet."

"Don't worry Jane. We'll protect you from those spiders." Eliza chimed in.

"Giant spiders."

"Same difference."

"I don't have much choice right? It's simply to know the difference anyway..." I say, my ears dropping on either side of my head.

They giggle a little. They may tease me, but I know they wouldn't use my fears against me.

"Yes. But let's still try to do as much as we can no?" Eliza says with a soothing tone.

I reluctantly nod. Even if it means spending more time than I'd like in a Dungeon infested by spiders. I turn back to the sign with a heavy sigh to finish what's written on it.

Apparently the monsters respawns pretty often, around half an hour per monster, so we need to be careful. It seems to be almost impossible to totally clear the Dungeon unless it takes us only one second to kill something. Because there's a lot of them. I shudder again at the thought.

It's, surprise, a cave system interconnected. There's no maps because it changes too often for those to be useful enough. Thankfully it's not an extensive Dungeon. There's approximatively twenty caves, some small, some big. No gear can be found though. After all, most of those are taken from Dungeons with humanoid monsters that use weapons or other pieces of armor. Like the Gobelins for exemple.

I would still not use anything from those little shit.

That's pretty much it. Beside the type of monster and Dungeon, the rest of the information have been provided by other students or teachers that dived in here.

"Well. Let's go I guess!" I say, smiling at my two girlfriends.

Weapons summoned, we enter the portal. This time it's on our own terms and consent, not because the universe decided it would be fun to bully three newly awakened.

A brief flash of bright light blinded us and the next instant we're standing in a cave of moderate size.

The flashbang was mandatory?...

Thankfully it doesn't hurt, much. But it's still quite annoying. I don't have the time to express my complains out loud that the ground starts to tremble a little.

"Ah. There it is I guess?" I say, my tone a little resigned.

The same sort of tablet rose from the ground. I'm not sure if I'm happy it wasn't just a one time thing. Or if I'm annoyed that whoever is behind those tablets think I'm some sort of saviour. Or maybe free labor. Well, not free that's true.

HELLO AGAIN DEAR JANE.

AND HELLO TO YOU TOO ANNA AND ELIZA.

I'M HAPPY TO SEE YOU AGAIN.

I HOPE THE ACADEMY IS FUN FOR YOU GIRLS.

OH AND CONGRATS GIRLS FOR CAPTURING HER HEART!

THAT WAS A VERY BEAUTIFUL CONFESSION!

We exchanged a bewildered glance. I don't know who's making these. But apparently they know a lot about us.

"Did this... Thing? Stalk us?" Eliza's voice is hesitant, showing her astonishment.

"I... Apparently? How... Does it knows otherwise?..." I answer, my voice as surprised as her.

Suddenly the text on the tablet changed rapidly.

NOW THAT'S RUDE!

I'M NOT STALKING YOU GIRLS!

IT'S CALLED... HERM... PROTECTION!

I lift an eyebrow as I narrow my eyes with suspicion. That sounds a lot like stalking. But should we really be mad? I mean, it seems to be someone very powerful.

While I was thinking whether to be angry or not, the tablet changed its text again.

PLEASE DON'T BE ANGRY.

I SWEAR I'M NOT LOOKING TO HURT YOU!

I WOULDN'T DO THAT TO MY-

NEVERMIND!

"Uh. Seems like we almost got a free information on their identity. Maybe if I blast it with lightning..." Anna says, her voice quieter at the end as some arc of lightning starts to dance on her staff.

NO PLEASE!

IT WOULDN'T DO MUCH TO THIS TABLET ANYWAY!

Now it almost sounds panicked, it's a little weird. But something in me is telling me this person isn't here to trick us. I try to focus on my eyes and nose to see and smell the mana coming out of the tablet.

Why... Does it feels familiar. But... old familiar?

OH-HO!

SEEMS LIKE YOU DISCOVERED ONE OF YOUR TRAITS ALONE JANE!

GOOD JOB!

I'M PROUD OF YOU.

A weird feeling rise within me. It's warm and makes me feel pretty good. I... Don't understand why. My tail starts to swish uneasily at that.

... ANYWAY!

SINCE YOU ARE AT THE ACADEMY.

I GUESS YOU DON'T WANT TO 'END' THIS DUNGEON.

BUT KNOW THAT I'll GIVE YOU THE TASKS WHEN YOU WANT THEM.

I STILL ADVISE YOU TO DO IT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE PLEASE.

IT'S IMPORTANT.

I'LL GET OUT OF YOUR LEGS NOW.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL...

AND JANE?

I tilt my head in confusion.

YOU DESERVE TO BE LOVED.

AND WE LOVE YOU TOO.

My eyes widen at that declaration. I didn't expect a... Tablet? To tell me something like that. I almost feel like I'm dreaming.

TAKE CARE OF HER FOR US PLEASE.

ANNA, ELIZA.

Both girls suddenly took my arms in theirs. When I looked at them in confusion I see they are looking at the tablet with as much determination and seriousness they can muster.

"Of course. We both love her to death. We would give our life for her." Eliza answered, her voice calm and steady.

"If one day she dies, we'll get revenge and join her." Anna adds on my other side.

"Hey-"

... DON'T DIE EITHER GIRLS.

Then the tablet disappeared the same way it appeared, through the floor.

"Uh.. That... Was something." I say a bit, no a lot, bewildered.

"Why... Do I feel like I got a blessing from a parent figure?" Eliza looked at me.

"No matter! See Jane, we aren't the only ones saying you deserve love! So just accept ours!" Anna interjected besides me, shaking my arm with exaggeration.

"We don't even know who's behind that... What if it's a demon or something?" I answer, shaking my head.

"No impossible." Her voice didn't leave space for a rebuttal. So I just gave up.

But... Who is this?

The 'person' behind those tablets seems to be able to see us easily. If they wanted to harm us it would be easy I guess.

"Well. We kind of managed to accomplish the main goal right? We got confirmation that Jane's 'power' can trigger in any Dungeons. And we can kind of chose if we want or not to use it." Eliza summarized the situation.

"Let's still fight a little no? I don't really want to come here for nothing you know. It feels like a waste. And we have a little time before bed." I say, looking toward the tunnel we could see at the end of the cave we're in.

I didn't really had time to observe around us since that tablet came out very fast. But we appeared in a medium-sized cave. The walls are made out of a kind of dull-gray stone. Some stalactites are hanging above us. Most are small, but there's a few pretty big in the middle of the rest. All that isn't spaced enough for any movement. Well, not like there should be any reason to do that anyway. But it's important to know all the possibilities available.

The rest of the walls are pretty bare and really look like a real cave. I guess it is a real one. Just... Constructed with mana?

Right in front of us is a long and dark tunnel. We can't even see past a certain point. Even with our enhanced vision.

As I'm the only melee fighter of the team, for now, I take the lead in front of them. I know Eliza will be ready to shield me if things get hiffy anyway. And Anna will be glad to promptly provide support fire when she can.

Thanks to Anna's light element, we don't really need torches. We can still see pretty far thanks to that. And it'll help blinding the giant bats if we do encounter them.

The dive was... A bit boring. The monsters were easy to deal with. The harder part? Taking whatever's valuable on the corpses. Mostly because it's tedious. And it's kind of boring.

Giant bat's wings seems useful as alchemy ingredients, rat's teeth for some armour manufacturing. And spider's legs too. But since a lot of students dive in this Dungeon every day, the price for those monster parts aren't really high. You need a ton of them to really make a enough money to at least break even.

So it's mostly considered a 'first time' Dungeon.

Still, fuck those spiders.

The little fuckers found it very fun to suddenly drop on us as we were walking forward. And uuuh... In panic I may have activated my lightning form to beat it senseless. After nearly twenty minutes of non-stop bashing, even the girls couldn't stop me, the 'poor' spider was just a pool of sticky green blood and a mess of limbs. Or you can even say it was just a blob of limbs, blood and... Silk?

Of course both girls were laughing hard so it took them a while to calm down.

"Hmpf. You could have helped me."

"Helped to what? Annihilate it? You did a wonderful job yourself, and you didn't need our help."

That's what they told me when I complained. I spent the rest of our dive with one eye on the ceiling. I wouldn't let those horrendous things ambush us again like that.

When we got out of the Dungeon it was already pretty late. But there was still quite a few students in the room. We sold every monster parts we got and like I predicted, we didn't get much money out of it. But for now it's fine. We don't need it that much for now.

Hmmm... Even if I'd like to take them on a date this week-end... We should have enough still.

I didn't know a hot shower could be so enjoyable after a Dungeon dive consisting of getting splashed by dirty rat, bat and spider blood. Thankfully our uniforms seems to be enchanted with magic to make it harder for stains to stick on it. We still need to wash it, of course, but it's less of a hassle.

"So. It would be good if we can invite Luna and Claire to our team. I think I'll try to work toward that. Not just because they are talented, but they are nice. I don't want weird people like that noble for exemple.." I start.

I'm currently sprawled on Eliza's lap. I thought I should change a bit sometimes. I'm usually clinging to Anna since I'm used to it since we were little. And it's pretty funny. When I laid down on her she made a tiny startled noise, her hands in the air without knowing what to do with them.

She's usually discretely assertive, so it's rare to see her flustered. But it didn't last long before she started to scratch behind my ears, dragging a purr out of my chest.

"I agree. We all saw Claire's fight. She seems very good at what she's doing. It's like she got awakened years ago. I don't know about Luna yet. She does seems fun. I do trust your judgement though, Jane." Anna answered me.

Since Eliza has my ears, Anna got to pet my tail. And she's taking full advantage of that.

"We need a healer too. We can't rely on your magic all the time Anna. It would be a problem for your mana reserves. Unless our resident fox can dodge everything perfectly." Eliza chimed above me.

"No way! That's impossible. I don't try to get injured. But it's impossible to dodge infinitely..."

"That's true. A healer is therefore mandatory. Do any of you have an idea?"

""Nope."" My twin and I answer at the same time.

"Well, we should look for one then."

"Hm-mh... But first... Sleeping please"

I yawn slightly, my ears flopping a little on either side of my head. They both giggle before getting up with me.

When we're all tucked in bed my eyes snap open suddenly.

"Oh right. I forgot to ask you girls, should we have a date in the city tomorrow? That would be great."

I feel them stiffen on my side so I look at them with confusion and concern.

What? Why are they reacting like that? Are they sick?

But when I see their blushing face and silly smile I'm relieved.

""YES!"" They answer together.

"Ouch too loud..."

""Sorryyy...""