Dungeons and Dalliances Ch. 017-026

How couldn't she have put out more than usual? When it'd been Jordan making it happen?

"And I figured having you finish might give more energy," Jordan said. "That's why I did that."

Her cheeks were flushed. Natalie thought it was an odd reasoning, but she accepted it instantly. "That makes sense," she said. "But look at my skirt, Jordan."

"Look at my pants," she pointed out. "I hardly escaped."

Jordan's uniform pants were stained, if not remotely as much as Natalie's skirt. Fuck, that was Natalie's cum covering Jordan. The idea thrilled through her, almost intense enough to start hardening again, despite how thoroughly she'd been milked.

"But it's fine," Jordan said. She started unraveling toilet paper and stuffing it down her pants. She dabbed at the dark spot, working at collecting the wetness. "Mine isn't horrible. Once it dries, I'll go grab one of your other skirts, and you can change. We'll be fine."

Natalie started cleaning herself up. However mind-blowing that finish had been, it had resulted in a horrible inconvenient situation. Did cum stain? It had to. Fuck, she was seriously soaked down there. If it did stain, then Natalie was down a skirt.

After having cleaned themselves up best they could, Jordan leaned against the stall wall. Natalie stayed seated. She was still a bit shaky.

"So," Jordan said. "Gotta wait things out, let it dry. Guess we can talk in the meantime."

Talk? Natalie froze. Talk about what?

"How much energy did you get?" Jordan asked.

Oh. That. Not ... anything else. Not 'them'. Were they really ignoring what had happened, though?

Well ... Natalie supposed there wasn't anything to talk about. Just another session to help Natalie earn energy. It'd gotten carried away, but not for any special reasons. Just some lust. They were only human.

***

Carnal Energy: 18

***

Natalie's eyebrows went up. "Wow," she said. "Eighteen."

"Four times higher yield," Jordan said. "Think it's because ... you finished?" She gestured at Natalie's crotch. "That was what I was testing, after all."

There was a nervousness to Jordan's words, distinctly uncharacteristic. Natalie ignored it.

"Maybe." Natalie huffed. "No baseline. But still, four times more is pretty good."

Jordan's tension eased, Natalie not addressing her flimsy excuse for what had happened. "It was a good choice to rush for that upgrade, then."

"We thought it would be." Obviously, advancing the skill that earned energy for other skills would be the best choice from an efficiency standpoint. Sure, Natalie had been given no additional strength, as she might have gotten by upgrading her illusion skill, but it meant she could advance other skills faster, now. "Do we go straight for the third tier?"

Jordan bit her lip. "I wouldn't think you can just keep rushing it over and over. You'll want to work on other skills. I bet your next upgrade will take much longer, but the others are still cheap."

"To encourage even distribution."

"Yeah. Maybe you should—"

The bathroom door shoved open, bringing with it the ambient noises of the barracks. Jordan's eyes widened; they'd picked this bathroom because it was out of the way. This was the first visitor the entire time they'd been here. They had assumed they wouldn't have any.

"Get your feet up," Jordan whispered. She shuffled into place, in front of the toilet, and turned around.

Natalie tugged her feet up, putting her shoes on the toilet seat. She understood what Jordan was going for—this way, there was only one pair of feet to see under the stall door, in proper position. Not a perfect solution, seeing how Jordan's pants weren't down around her ankles as they should be, but hopefully that wouldn't be noticed. Or, even if so, it wasn't the strangest thing in the world to be sitting on the toilet, clothed. Odd, definitely. But not enough to draw suspicion, like two pairs of feet.

Unfortunately, Jordan's quick thinking meant Jordan's ass was now shoved right in front of Natalie's face.

Fuck, the Tenet uniform really showed off her curves.

Natalie's cock started to harden. She looked away, embarrassed. They'd already performed their ... energy gathering ... for the day, so Natalie couldn't hide behind that excuse. Plus, she'd been pretty thoroughly drained. She didn't need a second session.

They stayed like that, awkwardly, until the woman left. They were alone in the bathroom.

Jordan leaned back against the the stall door. Natalie put her feet down. Her cock pushed against her skirt, making an obvious bulge. Flushing, Natalie adjusted it so it sat down, less noticeable. Jordan quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Hey," Natalie said. "It's not my fault you've got two girls' worth of ass."

Like usual, Natalie's embarrassment had spurred her on. She almost regretted the words, but then Jordan smirked.

"You say that, but you didn't pay it much attention, did you? You were supposed to be thorough with your groping."

"I was going to," Natalie said pointedly, "but then you turned around and started humping me, if you haven't forgotten."

Jordan shrugged, nonchalant. "Be quicker next time." She brushed forward. "As we were saying, though. Picking your next skill. I've been wondering—do you think making it bigger does anything?"

"Uh. What do you mean?"

"More than just size. [Heavy Weaponry] has to have a practical effect, too, right? Maybe something that's not stated outright? Plenty of skills are like that."

"No clue."

"It would make sense. Though, I haven't a clue what the effect would be. Maybe a bigger tool gives more energy?"

"So you think I should go for that next?"

"Probably not," Jordan admitted. "Just musing. I think you should put a bit into Harvest, see how much it advances. Then, if it's a long ways away, work on upgrading everything else from one to two. Or ... we'll make that judgment later. But we need to know how far from progression three you are." She paused. "I wonder what the next 'tier' is."

From 'fondling'. Natalie could see a few possibilities. Oral? Orgasm of any sort? Straight to penetration? Maybe something more specific, like a thighjob.

Fuck, a thighjob. Would Jordan let her? Natalie really, really shouldn't think about it.

Natalie closed her eyes, then did as Jordan suggested, funneling energy to [Carnal Harvest]. Only a few points ... and the image of pink liquid sloshing into an orb appeared in her mind. It barely scratched the surface. She opened her eyes.

"It's like you said," Natalie said. "A few points barely did anything."

"Then you might as well work on your other skills. You'll need more partners before you have a reasonable way to reach the next Harvest tier."

More partners. Yeah ... she still needed to figure out how she was going to go about that.

1.25 - The Guilds

Fortunately, Jordan's plan worked. Once she was appropriate for leaving the bathroom, the dark stain mostly dried—to the point of being less noticeable, at least—she went and changed pants, then returned to Natalie with a fresh skirt from her locker.

Changed, Natalie stuffed the ruined one in her backpack. Getting it clean was going to be a headache. Maybe she'd end up throwing it away, and deal with being down one. Eventually, she'd have enough tokens to buy a fresh set—though Tenet uniforms weren't cheap.

Overall, a minor headache. Though ... maybe worth it, considering how it had happened.

After escaping the bathroom without drawing any eyes because of the mishap, she had to deal with the other inconveniences the debacle had resulted in. The stickiness on her legs and thighs. So, a shower.

It was less of an ordeal than she had feared, taking an afternoon shower rather than one early in the morning. There were two others in the block she picked, and while she had to carry her change of clothes into the shower stall while mostly clothed—unlike the seeming norm of undressing at the lockers—nobody gave her an odd look for doing so. As she'd thought, being a mild prude wasn't something anyone particularly cared about. Maybe eventually someone would say something ... but then again, probably not.

So maybe even she could even sleep in, rather than waking so early like she had. Except ... no, she had other reasons to be starting the day early. Her 'relief'. Her libido did, clearly, need to be kept in check. The skirt was better at hiding her issue than tight pants, but still not perfect. Ignoring her problem wouldn't make it go away, and indeed, would only make things worse. So, it might be best to continue waking up early and relieving herself.

Dressed and ready to go out again—since there was still several hours before curfew—she met Jordan at her barracks, who had likewise showered and changed into something more casual.

They set off for their first item of business: the role guilds.

The role guilds were odd institutions. Like Harper had touched on, they'd been more critical in old days—had been closer to entities of themselves, and persisted even past graduation. Now, at least from what she had heard, they weren't much more than ...

Well, fraternities.

They still had a practical purpose for existing: they were conglomeration points for similarly-classed individuals to mingle. Harper had specifically mentioned 'networking' inside the role guild—who better to learn your class than from peers with a class similar to yours?

And even if skills didn't match up to a 'typical role', the role itself had independent principles to learn. A tank needed to draw attention and keep teammates safe; how to do each could be taught, in some regard, independently of skills and class.

Jordan's role was determined: rogue. Natalie's, however, was more in flux. Funny enough, as her class evolved, she might find herself falling into any of the other four roles that Jordan didn't fill: tank, fighter, mage, or healer. The last two were unlikely; almost certainly it would be tank or fighter.

For now, she intended to check out all four guilds. Why not? If nothing else, she'd get to meet people and learn more about Tenet. Eventually, Natalie would have to lock herself into no more than two guilds—so, probably fighter and tank, or tank and mage—but since the year had just started, the guilds were recruiting, and expecting newcomers to be feeling the various groups out. It wouldn't be odd if she looked around several.

The guild halls were separated from the campus, a decent—though not overly long—hike from everything else. Their isolation, Natalie suspected, was at least somewhat intentional. Even she had heard how much trouble the guilds got into. As she'd mused over, in the modern day and age, they were effectively frats, as much as they were the guilds of old. The parties thrown in the various guildhalls were allegedly legendary. Tenet's student body knew how to both work hard and play hard. Again, likely a by-product of a stressful, competitive environment.

As the guilds came into view, Natalie's eyebrows raised, and Jordan hummed in appreciation. The five buildings ringing the enormous open area—the Union Plaza—were impressive even by Tenet standards. Each of the five guilds sat at the point of a five-tip paved star—the Plaza. More than any individual structure's grandness, though, it was their dissimilarity to each other: the character behind each. Certain roles tended to attract certain sorts of people, and she could almost make out those stereotypes in the construction of each hall.

Each had its own thematic color: green for healer, gray for tank, blue for mage, red for fighter, and black for rogue. Likewise, each guildhall flew a prominent flag from the tops of their buildings, adorned with the simplistic—yet striking—icons associated to the role. The caduceus, a tower shield, a wizard's hat, an axe, and a wicked curved dagger. These symbols were common for adventurers and delvers alike—they were the symbols imprinted on badges that declared a person's role, used the world over. However, the flags were more elegant, more detailed than their more-common counterparts. The bare-bones symbols were expanded upon with a flourish.

Honestly, some bordered on gaudy. The mage's flag especially; the top and bottom were lined with gold bands, and speckling the wizard's hat were arcane symbols—crescent moons, stars, and odder—of various sorts. Mages did tend to be a pretentious sort, from what Natalie had seen. But maybe that was her bitterness speaking, because of how utterly incapable she was when it came to spellcasting. Easy to call them pretentious nerds and be done with it. She'd have to get over that. She'd probably be asking plenty of mage-guild members for help over the coming weeks, months, and years.

Since tank was the role Natalie would be filling for the party she, Jordan, and Sofia were cobbling together, she headed that way after saying her goodbyes with Jordan; Jordan, obviously, went for the rogue's guild.

Natalie admired the tank's guildhall as she approached. Each structure was impressive, but in different ways. The tank's guildhall was, expectedly, stoic. It was a fortress more than a building, a slab of carved gray stone, crenelations and battlements lining the top. Windows were covered by thick iron bars, and the front door was flanked on either side by two statues: both hunkered down, shield raised against an unseen blow. As she finished climbing the steps, she peered around to catch a glimpse of their faces, but thick helms hid them from sight. It was odd how much emotion was packed into the statues, even so.

She didn't linger; she finished walking into the guildhall proper, carried along by the steady stream of other students. She was hardly the only freshmen to have come checking out the guilds, having finished with uniform fittings.

Inside, she blinked around at what she saw.

1.26 - Prowl

The exterior of the guild had been medieval, appropriately stereotypical of tanks and impressive at once, but inside ... inside was, well, mundane.

Typically modern—the same as the rest of campus. Natalie had somehow expected the stoic design to have carried on to the interior. Though, she supposed, that would've been inconvenient. This was a functional building, however much the showmanship of the Union Plaza and five guildhalls suggested otherwise.

A banner streamed from one wall to the other, reading, 'WELCOME FRESHMEN!'.

Too mundane. Natalie had gotten her expectations up, seeing the guild's outward presentation.

Natalie had barely trailed into the lobby before somebody appeared next to her, slinging their arm onto her shoulder. She didn't tense, though maybe someone like Jordan would have—Natalie didn't have much problems with people being touchy, though she wouldn't say she liked it.

"Good to see you, frosh," the boy—probably a member of the guild, a recruiter of some sort—said. "You've made the right choice, joining the tank's guild."

Natalie eyed the arm draped on her shoulder, then raised an eyebrow at him. He had a sideways grin plastered on his face, and shaggy blond hair. Blunt features—handsome, rugged, straightforwardly masculine. He had wide shoulders and a powerful build, even compared to most Tenet students ... one which did little to nothing for her, considering her terminal case of gayness, but which explained his easy confidence. Natalie could tell a boy who wasn't used to rejection.

At Natalie's raised eyebrow, he didn't remove his arm, only grinned wider. So she removed it for him, shaking it off. He didn't take offense, so that was some sort of credit to him.

"I made the right choice?" she repeated. "That's hopeful. I'm just looking around."

"Nah, I can tell a tank when I see one. You're more refined than those rabid dogs we call neighbors."

The fighter's guild was to the left of tank's guild—their 'neighbor'.

Natalie found herself giving the boy an amused look. More refined? Her?

"Well, you've got a horrible read on people," she said. "I'm more fighter than tank. Just, my class means I might be better suited here."

The boy hummed. "Well, then the tank's guild could always use a new perspective," he said, pivoting easily. "Some fire in its ranks. So, I'm glad you're leaning toward us. You won't regret it."

Natalie found herself entertained at how easily he had adjusted his opinion: from 'rabid dogs' to 'some fire could be a good thing'. His twinkling eyes told Natalie he knew exactly what he was doing. Not a person afraid of saying whatever he needed in order to sway someone. Shameless about it, too.

"Why would you even care?" She knew the guilds did their best to recruit, but for what reason? "You get something for having more members?"

"More funding, to name one." He leaned in conspiratorially. "Which means bigger parties. But more than that ..." he looked her up and down, slowly, then flashed another smile. "Well, the more the merrier, right?"

Natalie figured she ought to say it. She knew what was happening ... if the wiggle of his eyebrows that had accompanied the last statement, and his not-so-polite up and down, hadn't made it clear.

"I'm gay."

He didn't miss a beat. "How strictly?"

"Very?"

He swiveled, changing directions. Natalie swerved with him. Somehow, she hadn't even realized she'd been following him further into the lobby. He'd swept her up in his wake, Natalie falling into step naturally. She wasn't attracted to him, but he had a magnetism of a different sort. A passive leadership, that made her follow. That was a tank for you. Most tanks were their party's leader.

"Well, then, Sammy will take great care of you," he said. "Have fun!" He patted her on the back then was gone before she registered what had happened. A blonde girl stood next to Natalie, looking even more bewildered than Natalie herself.

"But ... I'm not doing freshmen tours ..." Sammy trailed off. She looked at Natalie. "Um. Why did Alden leave you with me?"

Natalie took Sammy in, though more subtly than Alden had her. She was tall and powerful-looking, as Alden was—as many tanks were. Alden's width and defined arms were nice in abstract, aesthetic way, but on Sammy? Natalie was much more appreciative. Combining that build with soft curves and golden locks framing a round face and a blocky, prominent nose, which, despite maybe not being conventionally attractive, kind of did something for her. Natalie was a fan.

"Let's see," Natalie said. "He hit on me, twice, so I told him I was gay. Two seconds later, he dropped me off with you. So ... I can make a few guesses."

Sammy flushed, then glared at the blond boy's back, who was prowling through the guild's entry hall, looking for new prey. Natalie respected his singular focus, if nothing else. And, though it'd been rude to take interest in Natalie then dump her, he hadn't particularly tried to come off as 'friendly' in a normal way. He'd accepted her rebuffs easily, too. Still kind of annoying to be treated like that, but it didn't form a horrible image of him.

He was out for blood. Wasn't Natalie, too, considering her class? She'd be a hypocrite to be too annoyed.

"I'll kill him," Sammy said, still boring holes into his back. "He's such a lecher. We're supposed to be introducing everyone to the guild, not finding hook-ups."

"Well ..." Natalie said slowly. "Him trying was annoying. But if you did, I might not mind."

Sammy turned to Natalie, eyes widening at the frankness. She looked at Natalie in a new light, then down at her clipboard. She tucked it behind her back and smiled.

"Well. I suppose one tour wouldn't be a bad thing, even if it's not what I'm supposed to be doing. You wanna take a look around?"

Natalie grinned. Straightforward did tend to work out for her. "Sure. Sounds fun."

She had expected checking out the guilds to not be too interesting, but after this development, things were looking up.