To The Auction Outpost

The second time going through the skeleton dungeon is much the same as the first. The skeletons take a while to get through, although we’re getting better at handling them, due to more coordinated teamwork and practice against these particular enemies. The same boss window comes up and we explore the other end of the dungeon once more, hoping to find another secret.

After ten minutes of looking, we’re **** to come to the conclusion that there is no secret this time around, and that looking further would just be a waste of time. We enter the boss room with the same strategy as before. The boss is once again, exactly the same as before.

My higher frost resistance skill means that I can take a little more punishment from it’s ice attacks, although still not a whole lot. No level up on the skill this time, although that’s to be expected. The tactic of kiting and whittling down it’s health works just as well as it did last time, and after a patient ten minutes dealing damage slowly, we manage to get the kill.

1500xp

“YES!” I cheer as the Overlord fades into dust. Mia gives me a questioning look, and I put on my best enthusiastic game announcer voice. “Level up!” “Again? How are you getting so many and I still haven’t levelled up yet?” She complains. “Well, it’s my power system, you’re more tagging along for the ride. And also, I’m a lower level than you, I need the extra power more.” I reply, matter-of-factly.

“Smartass.” She says, shaking her head and unable to suppress a grin. We gather the loot the boss dropped quickly. I open my character sheet and put all 5 points into Wisdom as we exit the dungeon, leaving me with 42 effective Wisdom and 5.17 mana per minute regen, a fact which I’m quite happy about. I’m now level 13 and already almost halfway to level 14. This dungeon is absurdly effective in terms of grinding.

“Okay so, how do I sell all this stuff?” I ask Mia, once we’re back at the house. “Well, normally with powers like yours, you could just list stuff on the auction straight from your inventory. The auction will take the items from your inventory once they get sold. For your first time selling stuff though, you actually have to go in to an outpost.” She replies. “I can buy stuff by just signing up with my aura but I have to go in to sell stuff? Why?” I ask. She shrugs and replies with the same level of confusion. “Beats me. Just sorta the way they work.” My phone buzzes and I check the message.

Skylar: Be there at about 1:30 if that works?

Gemma: That works for us. See you then :)

“Okay so we have time. Want to go down to the auction before lunch?” I ask Mia. She nods. “Sounds good.” She takes my hand and starts to lead me upstairs. “Where are we going?” I ask her. “You’ll see.” She says cheerily, as she bounces up the steps. We reach the top and we walk down a short hallway before Mia opens the door and pulls me inside. I don’t have time to look around and take in the interior of the room as she closes the door and pushes me on the bed. “Watch.” She says with a cheeky grin. I sit there, nodding and slightly dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events.

Mia doesn’t have a dedicated set of battle gear. She just wears whatever clothes she feels like at the time. The simple, baggy grey shirt and black knee length shorts aren’t anything special, but when Mia starts to strip them off, they become the most intoxicating pieces of clothing in existence, at that moment. She crosses her arms and grips her shirt at the bottom, before lifting it over her head and throwing it aside.

Her simple white bra is revealed, along with a perfect midriff, toned but not muscular. Her boobs aren’t particularly big, but they don’t need to be. I would guess them to be maybe A cups, and they suit her perfectly. Mia’s skin is smooth, perfect, free of any little imperfections, broken up by the occasional small tattoo, mainly on her arms. I find myself wanting nothing more than to plant kisses all over her chest, and I swallow heavily.

Her movements aren’t the sultry movements of a professional striptease. They aren’t unskilled either, but it’s clear that she isn’t trying to dance. She’s just teasing me by getting changed in front of me. She turns around and bends over as she pulls down the shorts, sticking her ass out towards me. It’s not big, but it’s not small either. It’s somewhere in the middle, medium sized and round but not big enough to distort her slim figure.

It’s just as perfect as the rest of her, and I want nothing more than to knead the soft flesh under my hands.

The white panties, matching the colour of her bra, prevent her from revealing too much to me. Instead, she kicks aside the shorts and walks to her large wardrobe. She pokes her head inside, bending over slightly. My eyes are glued to her perfect ass, as she rummages around for something else to wear. She comes out with a baggy black sweater and black leggings. She puts both items on quickly, the leggings stretching hypnotically around her ass, and I’m left with a very disappointed erection.

Mia sees my disappointed face and laughs. “What, is my body not as nice as you thought it would be?” She teases. “No shut up, it’s perfect. I just um…” She giggles at my uncertainty. “I thought you might want to…do stuff now.” “It’s adorable how you can be so straightforward about relationship stuff but when it comes to…this, you get awkward.” Mia says. “You can’t say it either!” I fire right back. “Okay fine, I admit that. I might be a closet pervert, but I have no idea how to talk about this stuff.”

I walk over to her and embrace her. “We’ll figure it out together though.” I say. “Of course we will, my lovely Gem.” She whispers in my ear. I get pleasant shivers down my whole body. “I still don’t understand how you can say you’re a sub, when you do stuff like that.” I remark. “Stuff like what?” She teases softly again, planting a kiss on my cheek.

“Like that! Whispering in my ear and teasing me!” I say, smiling despite the faux annoyed tone of my words. She looks up at me as we hold each other close. “Well, some things are easy to pick up from porn. Others…” She looks away and reddens slightly. “Others aren’t as easy.” She finishes. I giggle at her red face and kiss her forehead softly. “As I said, we’ll get there.”

The walk there passes by quickly. Mia and I hold hands the entire time, a fact I’m ecstatic about. “What’s wrong with Taylor Swift?” Mia asks. “I don’t know, I just…don’t like listening to that kind of music.” I respond. “What kind of music? Pop music?” She asks. “Yeah.” “Why not?” Mia continues probing. “Well, I’m a Metalhead for one. So the music I prefer is quite different.” I reply.

“But I used to be quite a bit more elitist. I used to think that music genres like Metal, jazz and classical were objectively superior to genres like pop and rap music, because of the complexity of the songs, and the skill required to write and perform songs in each genre. I ended up going back on that because of a comparison between music and drawing. I’m terrible at drawing, I can’t draw to save my life. When I was in 8th grade, my art teacher gave us free drawing time and I spent the entire period working on this one drawing that was sort of like a dragon tattoo."

"I was really proud of it, and when my teacher saw it, she told me that it wasn’t art. I kind of realised that me trashing on pop and rap music was like that: it might not have the objective talent that other musicians do, but if somebody puts effort into something, that effort should be respected and appreciated. And even if they didn’t, that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy the resulting piece of art, be that visual or music. I’m not a visual art person but once I made that comparison, most of my hatred towards popular music just disappeared."

"Now in it’s place, I just feel a dislike for those genres which I can’t put my finger on the reason for. The logic and reason behind those feelings is gone, but the opinion isn’t. I don’t really understand why, and it’s strange because I used to really enjoy popular music, back when I was 12 or 13. I thought it was me recognising that some genres are objectively more complicated than others which was the reason why I stopped listening to that music, but now I’m not so sure.” I conclude my rambling.

Mia nods and I redden slightly as I realise how much I rambled. “Sorry for rambling.” I apologise. She hits me lightly and laughs. “Don’t apologise dummy, I like listening to you ramble, it’s cute.” I fight the urge to apologise again, as Mia continues. “Can we listen to some popular music together? I have a hunch on what your feelings stem from.”

“Sure, if we can cuddle while we listen.” I reply. “That’s not even a question, of course we’re cuddling while we listen. Cuddles are essential.” Mia shoots back, wrapping her arms around me and pressing herself into me to demonstrate her point.

We open the door to the same abyss auction outpost that we went to before. Granny Jojo looks up at us and smiles. “Hi dears, what can I do for you?”

Mia nudges me after a second to remind me that I’m the one supposed to be talking. “Oh uh, I’d like to sell some stuff please?” I ask. “Sure, is this your first time selling things on the abyss auction?” Granny Jojo asks. I nod in response. “Alright, I’ll just need you to put your hand on this.” She says, holding up a fairly normal looking iPad. I walk up to the counter and put my hand on the pad, watching as it presumably scans my aura. The iPad beeps and the shopkeeper turns it back around to her.

“Lovely, thank you Gemma. What would you like to sell?” I reach into my inventory and start pulling out the various items that I’ve been stockpiling from the dungeons. The rat meat and oversized rat bones from the giant rats dungeon, plus the weak and regular undead bones and the necromancy shards and fragments from the skeleton dungeon. I pile all of them on the desk. “All of these, thanks.” I say, appreciating the fact that so far, my voice hasn’t cracked from my social anxiety.

“No problem dear, as soon as any of these sell, you’ll receive the money into that pocket dimension of yours. The auction takes a 5% cut for any of the sales, just so you’re aware. Next time, you should just be able to list things straight from your pocket dimension onto the auction. Is that all?” She asks. I nod, then hesitate. “How much is all of that going to sell for?” I ask.

“Well, since I’m listing them for you, I’ll look up how much each of these items are worth on the auction and list them at that price. In future when you sell your own goods, you can either do that, or put them up for auction and let the market decide the price.” She explains. I nod again. “Thank you, that’s all thanks.” I say, turning away. “Have a lovely day dear.” Granny Jojo says, as Mia and I walk out of the shop.