-Heidi R. Kling

"Ah, there you are. I really should find a way to stay in contact with you guys," John said as he finally flagged down the travelling vampiress and the Nekos. It wasn't too hard with Seras corralling them, since she was eagerly keeping an eye out for her Master to finish his business. The four of them gathered in the open field, with Mithra only slightly off to the side. John eyed her as she circled their perimeter but said nothing of her ever-present coldness to everyone except her twin.

"Did everythin' go alright, Master?"

"Better than expected," John said, trying not to look too closely into Seras' eyes. "Anyway… let's get this dungeon run started, yeah?"

"Yeah!" Maera echoed, pumping her fist into the air. John smirked a little at the all-too-human gesture, not certain where she'd picked it up. Obviously either Lunaya or Seras had perked up about something while he was gone.

"What about you, Mithra? Coming or no?"

Mithra disinterestedly swayed her tail, nuzzling up against the calves and thighs of her twin sister as if John didn't exist. Despite Maera now standing far more often than she had before, Mithra seemed perfectly content to continue mostly crawling on all fours. Even if her speed was impressive when down on her knees and her tiptoes, John was a bit put-off by the continued animalistic behavior. Maera had grown in leaps and bounds, but Mithra had still only spoken just enough to know that she wasn't mute and seemed distant from everyone but her own twin.

John put aside those concerns as he sent out the group invites. Maera and Mithra were automatically added, as usual, but he saw no sign of dissent or dissatisfaction from the black-haired Neko.

*"I wish she'd communicate… I have a lot of work to do with these girls," John muttered, shaking his head as he opened the dungeon menu. This time, he had a much better plan in mind than simply relying on a randomization feature to carry him to exceptionalism. Putting his grand total of just under two decades of life experience grinding to use…

John set the dungeon to level one.

"So," John explained, aware that they could all see the menu, even if only Seras was really capable of understanding it, "it seems like the dungeon bonus is the most important part of the whole thing. More importantly, it's all exactly proportional - there doesn't appear to be any exponential scaling of experience granted based on level. It's a relatively flat incline. So instead of nearly dying and pushing hard to get through dungeons at our level, if we just run a bunch of lower level dungeons and use my Feast ability to preserve health and mana, we can-"

John took in the expression on Seras' face and realized he'd overestimated her gaming knowledge. She seemed to be following along right up until he mentioned experience, health, mana, and his own abilities, though he wasn't even sure how much referring to things as levels and experience worked for someone who had never played games.

"Right. Well… we're gonna fight a bunch of weak shit to game the system. And when we get back, you are playing a Final Fantasy game," John emphasized Seras as he pointed her out. Despite the innocuous nature of his request, she looked rather as if he'd just told her there would be a pop quiz when they finished the dungeon.

John chose a simple "Giant Rats" setting, hoping for a bit of target practice. He also wanted something he could slaughter reliably enough with his base weapon to regenerate through his Feast ability - though the Talent was filled with raw memories that he had only just finished repressing, his Gamer instincts would not allow a point to go to waste.

The middle of the field seemed to be a relatively perfect location for the Dungeon, as he received no pop-ups about the dungeon requesting a change in scenery as drastic as the one he'd created Seras in. The plains remained similar to how they had been, with the notable addition that, as the Dungeon Barrier rippled out around them, mounds of dirt seemed to rise up and open to caverns below the earth.

"Rat dens," John surmised immediately, noting the overly large size of the entrances and the number of different mounds that had appeared. The dungeon he made was only about a hundred yards on each side, so he could see every one of them from where they were - there were eight in total.

"Let's stick together for the first one, we-"

Maera and Mithra interrupted John with a spine-tingling hissing noise, something he'd heard them make in combat many times but never in such a quiet and relaxed environment. Before he could even ask them what the problem was, they were bounding off, side-by-side, into the nearest den. From within John heard echoing sounds of hissing, both theirs and what resembled some seriously pissed off-

"Rats," John sighed, facepalming as he stared down his own stupidity. He had not expected such an animalistic reaction, somehow. It seemed that the Nekos' mental stats still needed some raising.

+1 EXP!
+2 EXP!

"Well, that might actually work pretty well for us," John noted as the Nekos charged out of the den and immediately began heading for the next one. Seras and he both simply watched in fascination as they proceeded to run through every den in seconds, eviscerating the rats within. Maera lost a grand total of three hitpoints during the entire run - Mithra lost one. John settled for collecting what little loot was left behind. It seemed like lower-level enemies dropped less (and worse) loot - the grand total haul for the first four dens were fifteen Yellow Rat Teeth and five pounds of Tainted Rat Meat, which John left where it was. After that, he didn't even bother looting.

Between the dens there had been around twenty rats in total, and John had netted a cool 30 EXP, hardly worth the effort… if he had put any into it at all. With the final den cleared out, they returned to John's side, Maera skipping daintily and covered in rat blood. Mithra was carrying one of the deceased rats, only to plop it down at John's feet and then clean herself with disdain.

"Well, let's see what we get for a completion reward before we make any judgement calls," John thought as the Nekos appeared from their latest conquest.

"Speaking of which, where's the-"

An elongated squeak and squeal filled the air, and from the earth one final mound of dirt rose up. This time it was no den but instead a simple tunnel, burrowed by a rat no smaller than a large minivan, covered in black fur with red eyes and a menacing snarl as it turned on the small group.

"Okay, momma's pissed. Same plan as before; back them up, Seras!" John shouted, hand already going out to his side, readying a Fire Orb to-

Party Member: 19 DMG!
Party Member: 21 DMG!
Party Member: -6 HP!
Party Member: 23 DMG!

+3 EXP!

"I- wh- seriously?" John asked, looking between the Nekos and the very quickly bloodied corpse. The rat had started thrashing around, but both Maera and Mithra had latched onto its back and started frantically tearing chunks of flesh out with rapid and deep strokes of their claws. John was left gaping as a completion notification popped up.

Mini-Boss defeated, Dungeon complete [Level 1]!
+125 EXP [+50 EXP from Perks]
+$500 (250 + 100% from Perks)
+3 Shriveled Rat Tails
+2 Zone Customization Points

Achievement Unlocked! "Out of Their League!" ~ You beat a Dungeon several levels below you. Seriously, it wasn't even a challenge.
+1 Waste of Time

Achievement Unlocked! "Time Attack Mode!" ~ You beat a Dungeon in under ten minutes. Divide and conquer!
+100 EXP
+2 Agility

Achievement Unlocked! "Unstoppable Object, Meet Immovable Wall!" ~ You beat a Dungeon without taking a single point of damage. Even though you kind of cheated.
+100 EXP
+5 Endurance
-3 Endurance for doing it on super-easy mode. Seriously?

"So, uh…" John said, his eyes opening wide to a whole new possibility of grinding as he quickly used his mana to patch up the very minimal scratches and bruises the Nekos had taken. The Dungeon Barrier faded around them, but John readied his mana to bring them back.

"Shall we do that again?"

Mini-Boss defeated, Dungeon complete [Level 1]!
WARNING: Dungeon has already been completed once this week, during current Reincarnation. Rewards multiplied by (.5^1)
+62 EXP [+(50/2) EXP from Perks]
+$250 (125 + 100% from Perks)
+1 Pickled Giant Rat Eye
+1 Zone Customization Points

"And like that, you've lost me," John sighed, shaking his head. If the rewards exponentially scaled down like that to prevent power-gaming, there was no point at all in this. Even if the experience from the enemies remained flat, he was barely going to get any more experience than he would doing one normal run of a higher level dungeon, and then only if they trained all day. Plus the loot sucked. He wasn't even sure what he was supposed to do with half the junk that he had - it seemed like junk-tier loot, and without even a vendor to throw him a few copper coins for it. At some point the loot and the zone points would probably go to zero altogether, even if they were useful.

“Alright, maybe if we change dungeon type it will count as a new one - how about skeletons?”

Mini-Boss defeated, Dungeon complete [Level 1]!
WARNING: Dungeon has already been completed once this week, during current Reincarnation. Rewards multiplied by (.5^2)
+31 EXP [+(50/4) EXP from Perks]
+$124 (62 + 100% from Perks)

Achievement Unlocked! "Nice Try!" ~ You tried to out-game a literal goddess. Nice set you’ve got on you, but I’m waaaaay ahead of you. P.S. Stop wasting both of our times.
+2 Waste of Time

John fought the urge to glance up to the heavens with exasperation. If this really was Gaia sending him these messages, he wished she would’ve been a little more direct and helpful. Not only had they wasted even more time - as the achievement so hopefully pointed out - but it had taken twice as long because the Nekos didn’t even hate skeletons that much and had to be more directly coaxed into combat. All in all, he’d consumed almost an hour and basically his entire mana bar creating dungeons, even with what he regenerated when he killed some of the skeletons himself.

"Come on, guys. Let's head back, we can worry about grinding some more later."

John let reality settle around them again, and they began the trek back to camp. The Nekos seemed content after their latest hunt and trudged along quietly with only the occasional mewling sound as they affectionately toyed with each other's hair.

"So, we get stronger by doin' that, right? That's what all those menus of yours were about?"

"Basically," John agreed, giving Seras an approving smile. "Everyone gets stronger, faster, and smarter about their fighting through experience. This is just a little more literal. Anyone around me gets the benefit too, it seems like, and it's shared between anyone I can fit in the group. So the more things they kill…"

"Oh, so that's 'ow I keep gettin' stronger, I though' I felt a lot faster when we fought those, er, naked bird ladies." Seras blushed at the memory, perhaps a bit too close to home considering she'd only recently gotten an article of clothing to her own name.

"Yeah… really?" John replied, catching himself in the middle of absentmindedly agreeing when he realized what she was saying. "You noticed it already? Moira did too… am I that unobservant? Let's test that later."

They stumbled into the campsite with an air of relief about them, each settling into their own routines. John was caught on what to do. He'd been planning to grind for quite a bit longer, but he had to completely re-think his game plan now. A level eight dungeon had been almost too much for them, even with Moira there to help protect them - he couldn't reliably keep his friends alive under that much pressure. He needed to develop his abilities… on the other hand, not only did doing dungeons too low-level barely give him a chance to do anything himself and develop those skills, but doing them repeatedly gave diminishing returns. There was a risk-reward balance to be achieved there, and John was going to have to work hard to find it.

Casting his eyes to Lunaya, who for once seemed to actually notice him, John made his decision surprisingly easy. Dungeon Barriers could be done anytime, and it wasn't imperative that Mithra and Maera level up at all, he just appreciated the help and someone to watch his back. But his time with them in this world was limited, and he wanted to make the most of it.

"Hey, so… I was gonna give this to you earlier, but it felt a little out of place to do right after a fight. I didn't just get Seras stuff while we were at the mall. You seem pretty comfortable without clothes, so I thought I'd try something else. I got a few things from the food court, tell me what you like."

John pulled from his inventory a series of items, one after the other. He started with a double cheeseburger, then followed that up with a container of alfredo pasta, two different subs both loaded with meat, a box of popcorn chicken, french fries from three different stands, and a milkshake for good measure. Not the healthiest selection but not the worst he could've done and a reasonable start. He was pleased to see that they were piping hot (or at least lukewarm, depending on the service he'd gotten) as yet another benefit of his inventory space.

"Not sure exactly what your tastes are, so I kind of got a little of everything. Anything you don't want, the Nekos can have, so be as picky as you- uh, Lunaya?"

Lunaya's eyes were wide in perhaps the most expressive look John had ever seen her give before. Her nostrils were flaring as she quietly but intensively sniffed each piece of food, bending so low that her face was nearly in John's lap when she took in the scent of what he'd set around him. When she pulled back she started reaching for one, only to pull back and move her hand toward another. She glanced back and forth, repeating the gesture several times.

"You seem to know about a lot of things… didn't include non-Abyssal stuff though, I take it?"

Lunaya shook her head, still inhaling. Her ears twitched frantically, and John suppressed an evil urge to begin toying with them.

"You don't have to pick just one, you know."

Lunaya glanced one last time between John and the food before she nodded, reaching forward toward the chicken. John let her hand wander within inches before he placed his hand over the box, blocking it from her grasp.

Lunaya's ears turned backwards and tucked low to her head, brows furrowing in annoyance. She glanced up at John with fury in her eyes, but when she saw the smile crossing John's face, it turned into confusion for just a moment.

"While the Nekos were cleaning up, I tried to figure out why you were acting the way you did. Why you wanted to argue but got so friendly when I defended myself that first time or when I confronted you the second," John said slowly, gently lifting his hand. He casually raised up the lid on the box and pulled out the biggest piece of popcorn chicken off the top, pulling iit up and tossing the entire thing into his mouth while never letting his eyes break away from Lunaya's. She stared at his mouth in what could be mistaken for hunger but had something else to it - something almost feral.

"I don’t know exactly what’s up with you, but you don’t strike me as submissive. You attacked me the first time we met, you nearly **** Maera’s arm to the ground to stop her when you disagreed, and you’ve been… let’s just say ‘less than cooperative’ when someone tried to get you to do something you didn’t want to do. No, you really don’t strike me as someone who wants to meekly follow orders.”

Lunaya glared as John reached into the box, pulling another piece up to replace the one he’d finished just before speaking. The air grew thick, and as John prepared to devour that one too, he could see Lunaya’s eyes struggling not to break eye contact with him to stare at the food. Her nose was twitching in a way that would’ve been adorable if she wasn’t so tense and threatening.

“No, I think you want your way, you’re just too used to getting it. It gets you all riled up to see someone who can handle your headstrong attitude, who won’t back down, doesn’t it? The Nekos always listen when you’re serious, and Seras is so unsure of herself she has a hard time standing up when anyone pushes her around… I’m the only one you’ve met so far that won’t back down when they know they’re right. No, you don’t strike me as a submissive little puppy - you’re way too strong and stubborn for that. You’ve got a wild streak in you, one that can’t be tamed but wants someone to try. You strike me as a bitch in heat looking for someone who’s as stubborn as you are and knows what they want just as well.”

The words were struck. They weren’t even entirely true, perhaps, but they did what John wanted. They irritated Lunaya. Her lips curled back a half-inch as a wicked smile came across her face, and John had only enough time to realize how far he’d just taken things with a handful of sentences and some teasing.

“Seras!” John called, not daring to glance away from the Canid Reaper in front of him. He frantically cleared his lap of the last of the food. “Nekos, walk, NOW!”

“M-master? Agai- MASTER?!”

Seras’ final shout came as Lunaya leapt forward, her mouth open and hands latching around John’s shoulders as she sent both of them rolling along the ground.

“Do as I say, Seras!”

-3 HP!
-5 HP!

Lunaya’s fist collided with John’s cheek twice before he ducked the third. They were rolling, so it wasn’t too hard since both of them were kept off balance by every rotation. John thought for a split-second about the direction they were rolling and threw out his left elbow, catching the ground hard and stopping their minor momentum. His hitpoints took a small dip as his shoulder tried to twist out of place, but Gamer’s Body kept any major damage from occurring as he righted himself and planted himself on Lunaya.

He didn’t know if Seras had listened, but no one interfered as Lunaya tried to kick at John’s body with her legs while reaching toward his face. To stop the **** John hooked his knees over her thighs and then brought his heels back around her knees and planted his toes in the dirt, locking her legs in place. He was grateful for all the recent levels, as well as the Order cloak he was still wearing. Without them, he had no idea if he could’ve held back Lunaya’s strength after thoroughly pissing her off like that.

“You know what you need?” John asked, panting as he did his best to block or pin the flailing limbs of the Canid, who was surprisingly good at putting up a fight for a woman who claimed not to like it.

Lunaya gave no response, only continuing to thrash against him. John tensed his body, readying to move before pulling himself off to the side while she was focused on her arms. Just as she started to jerk her legs around again, John grabbed her by the waist and rolled her onto him, face-down and resting her abdomen on his knees.

“You need to be taught a lesson!”

Lunaya struggled to right herself, but John held on with all his might using his left arm while raising his right and bringing it down with as much strength as he could without literally striking Lunaya - the sound of his hand colliding with her bare ass cheek resounded through the air, all the more startling as Lunaya froze and gave up her struggles at the contact.

“From now on,” John began, raising his hand up and bringing it down in a second, only slightly less intense spanking, “you will take care of the Nekos and keep them out of trouble, but you do not keep them from me or stop them from making their own decisions when I offer it to them. You have the authority that I give you, and I’m in charge, understood?”

John continued to bring his hand down around the same spot, but surprisingly Lunaya’s cries grew quieter and less pained as he continued. John ignored his confusion and continued to slap, Lunaya’s cheeks growing slowly redder with time, until eventually her struggles died down altogether - and John’s hand finally came away wet.

“I was… I was right, wasn’t I?” John said, staring almost in wonder at the soft glisten to his fingertips where they’d come away. He had felt the softness of her lower lips a few times while striking, but more so at the beginning when he struck with more ****. Now he was only just contacting her skin, and yet… she was soaked, he realized abruptly.

Lunaya did not acknowledge his question. She stared back at him with as much defiance as ever, but despite his loosened grip and the pause in his strikes, she did not move. If anything… was John imagining it, or was her ass wiggling slightly?

“Yeah, I was,” John answered his own question, eyes widening a little. “And you don’t just like it, you love it.” Lunaya nodded. It was subtle, but it was there, and that was all John needed.

John abruptly shifted his hands to grab Lunaya by her side and flipped her off his lap, causing her to land unceremoniously on her undoubtedly very sore ass. She yelped a little, but John ignored the pained cry, happily standing up as if the last few minutes of fighting and punishment were ignored.

“Excellent! Then your punishment begins now!”

Lunaya glared up at him. John had seen her angry, and aroused, and disappointed. He had never seen her all three at once, which was captured beautifully in that moment as her heterochromatic eyes locked onto him just as her right hand snuck between her soft legs and began to toy with her outer folds, her left leg lifting up just enough to provide him with a show. John would have been lying to say that he was not extremely turned on by the strange mixture of sex and **** they’d just gone through together, but he **** his mind to overpower his erection as he turned away.

“What’s wrong? I told you that you enjoyed being overpowered, and before I left I said that your punishment was supposed to be something you wouldn’t enjoy. You’re just going to have to deal with… this… your… self…”

John slowed to a crawl and then a halt entirely as he turned away from Lunaya. The Canid had seemed so comfortable, so intimate, that John forgot all about his surroundings. So when he turned around to see Seras and the Nekos all staring at him…

John blushed furiously, raising his voice to shout angrily at the lot of them.

”I said go for a walk! I swear to Gaia, the last one out of here will not live to regret it!”