Dungeons and Dalliances Ch. 027-039

The brief awkwardness was gone, just like that. Hard to be awkward around someone so affable.

"Just happened, I guess," Natalie said. "Tenet's got scouts everywhere, even down south. I was pretty good at swinging weapons around ... and they saw. Took notice." She shrugged. It had been that simple. No grand coincidences.

"Makes sense." She laughed. "Though, I expected a story."

Now that Natalie was paying attention, Liz did have a clear enunciation to her words—and a straightness to her back and posture—that gave things away. That she was highborn. Just, almost everybody at Tenet was like that, so Natalie had stopped paying attention. Or, it hadn't stood out, at least.

A member of the royal family. Even a far-removed one. This girl?

So weird.

And maybe Liz would be joining them for a trial dungeon run? A literal Beaumon princess? What would Mom and Dad think of that? Or anyone back home.

Natalie and Liz's conversation petered off, the upcoming spar drawing their attentions. With a swing of her hand, Instructor Robin indicated for the fight to start.

Despite not being the one up there, Natalie watched, tense. Liz would be judging Sofia and Jordan's performance in the same way she had Natalie's—even if she didn't say so outright. For that matter, everyone was judging everyone. This first week of spars and classes would be how many students decided who they wanted to team with.

Fortunately, as the fight progressed, Jordan and Sofia handled themselves well. Sofia's team won ... and unfortunately, to Natalie's immense annoyance, it was probably thanks to Sofia. Even more than usual, Natalie's white-haired rival rose up to the challenge. She didn't wipe the floor with her opponents—this was Tenet they were talking about—but she performed. More than performed.

Liz's wide-eyed admiration, and the appreciative noises throughout the spar, made that clear. Though, Liz seemed to be the sort of person to give those reactions more freely than most. But impressing a Beaumon couldn't be an easy thing. Liz had grown up around famous adventurers, and likely, been trained for this since birth. Not a shabby result, getting appreciative noises from her.

Natalie could take solace in how professional first impressions had gone well. Just, she might've preferred seeing Sofia not be perfect, for once. Even if it jeopardized their future plans in a small way.

Why did that irritating girl have to be so good?

2.08 - Class

"However," Instructor Lauer monotoned, "that's far from saying preparation and study is useless to a first-time delver. No two runs are the same, but certain frameworks can be applied to aid the neophyte in a successful dungeon run."

Natalie hadn't thought it possible, but Instructor Lauer was making delving sound boring. The dungeon was the most incredible phenomena on the planet, a labyrinth of infinite complexity and variance, a structure described as sentient by some scholars, and allegedly sprawled beneath the entire world. The riches pulled from its depths fueled half of society as they knew it. There were beasts hidden in the deeper floors that could destroy cities if they somehow surfaced. And Instructor Lauer?

He was making it boring.

Natalie's head slowly declined toward her desk, eyes fluttering as her desperate efforts to stay awake faltered. The world went fuzzy, then—

Then Jordan kicked her ankle, and Natalie jerked up, blinking in disorientation. Jordan studiously wrote in her notebook, not even glancing over, her passive waking-up of Natalie so ingrained she might not have realized she'd done it. Jordan was the only reason Natalie hadn't failed a grade, back at Tinford. Not because Natalie was stupid, but because she seriously couldn't keep still. Classrooms were torture to her. And three hours a day? Less than high school, but still the worst thing Natalie could imagine.

"For example," the buzzing, impossible-to-focus on noise continued, "the study of monsters. While your dungeoneering course will be concerned with the intricacies of traps, floor layouts, and common encounters, we will focus on the dungeon's inhabitants, first and foremost. Much can be ascertained from a monster's appearance, and a formal [Inspect], even more so."

It wasn't that the material was boring. Just, everyone knew this. As in, everyone everyone. They were truly starting from the ground up when it came to the dungeon—not taking any material for granted, not even stuff six year olds would know. Which Natalie supposed was fair, because as Harper had pointed out during orientation, some students joined Tenet from even stranger circumstances than Natalie. There were lots of myths to dispel, or holes to fill, just to be safe. But that didn't make it not torture.

"But let's start with general classifications, first. Consider—"

A bell went off in the distance, interrupting Instructor Lauer's monologue. He cut off mid-sentence, and once the echoing noise silenced, said, "It seems we've run out of time for the day. Your next instructor will be in shortly. Remember, pages sixteen through twenty nine, by tomorrow."

The enormous lecture hall came to life with chairs scraping against the ground. Natalie's next class was in this same hall—as many of the students' was—so she stayed seated.

She groaned and thumped her head onto the desk. "I'm not gonna make it, Jay."

Jordan patted her back sympathetically. "There, there. Just two more classes."

"Every day," Natalie groaned.

"It is pretty boring," Liz piped in. "I mean, how's he even do it? No inflections, just one long string of blah, blah, blah."

Liz had, it seemed, inserted herself into Natalie's group. Natalie had no clue why. Not that she minded. Just, a literal, actual princess, making friends with the three of them? Why?

To the right of Jordan, Sofia leaned backward in her seat, bringing herself into Natalie's view. "If you can't focus on the lecture, I'd recommend reading the textbook. That's what I've been doing. It's much more engaging. And more importantly, informative."

"Only you could think reading from a text book is engaging," Natalie sneered.

"No, she's right," Jordan said idly. "There's a compendium in the back detailing common monsters. It's fairly interesting."

Natalie experienced a brief bout of dissonance: Sofia being a nerd was annoying, but Jordan? Well, on her, it was endearing. Fortunately, she was saved from committing to a response by Liz:

"So, what are you guys up to after class? You going to the semester kick-off soirée?"

"Huh?" Kick-off soirée? "Wait, is that the party at the healer's guild?"

"Yeah." Liz leaned forward, grinning. "Apparently, it's been six years since there wasn't a casualty. It's supposed to be crazy."

"Casualty?" Jordan asked, alarmed.

"I thought they had the healer's guild host it so things didn't get out of hand," Natalie said. That was what Sammy said, at least. "Aren't you guys supposed to be the responsible ones?"

"Hey," Liz scolded. "You shouldn't stereotype people."

"You were happy about being a stereotype," Natalie pointed out. She'd had Natalie guess her role, then been pleased when she had.

"Doesn't matter." Liz pouted. "We're not always responsible, okay? We know how to cut loose, too!"

Liz's pout wasn't doing much to help her claims. She looked way too innocent.

"There's no way there's casualties," Natalie said.

"Guess we'll have to find out. So, are you going?"

Natalie glanced at Jordan—and Sofia, seeing how she was in line of sight—who both shrugged at her.

"I am," Natalie said, turning back. "With someone else, though. Got invited."

"You did? Who?"

"Sammy? From the tank's guild."

Liz didn't seemed to recognize the name. She turned to Sofia and Jordan. "And you two?"

"Probably not," Jordan answered. That didn't come as a surprise. She wasn't a sociable person—loud, chaotic parties weren't her scene.

"I might," Sofia said. "I'm undecided."

Liz, naturally, seized the opportunity. "You should! You can come with me. Ana's gonna be there. And Johanna—she's in our barracks too. You'll like her."

Sofia nodded slowly. Natalie could see the gears turning in her head. She and Sofia weren't friends, but they did, unfortunately, know each other well. Sofia wasn't enthusiastic about a party, but she recognized the merit of meeting Ana—a potential future teammate—and other prominent political figures, considering Liz's family name.

Sofia was like Jordan in that way, her brain always churning over implications and strategies, even in normal life. Which was a good thing, Natalie guessed. A desirable trait in a delver. Natalie was more of a 'in-the-moment' thinker. She had Jordan for the other stuff.

"That sounds fun," Sofia said eventually. "When is it?"

"Eight," Liz said, seeming genuinely excited at Sofia accepting. "Starts at seven, technically, but we can't be too early. We'll look lame. That's a death sentence at Tenet."

"It is?"

"That's what my brother says. And he would know. He's the king of lameness."

Sofia gave a bemused laugh. "Eight it is, then."

2.09 - Discovery

The endless drudgery of classroom academics wrapped up at three p.m., and—as the schedule indicated—next up was extracurriculars. Despite what the name would suggest, they weren't optional. Everyone was required to enroll in at least one, though more could be taken if chosen.

Natalie didn't intend on picking up any pointless hobbies, not in an official capacity. Honestly, she didn't understand the people who did. Drama, art, band, and so on, weren't pursuits to be disrespected, but as a delver? Surely people had better things to be doing, considering their profession. Doubly true for first years. Despite that opinion, Natalie knew the art clubs didn't hurt for members. But she herself wouldn't be joining their ranks.

Which left practical pursuits to fill the mandatory requirement. In Natalie's case, that was dueling, or a harvesting discipline.

As a paladin, and a person intending to take up the mantle of tank, she was leaning toward mining. The ores that could be gathered from deposits in the dungeon made excellent equipment, supernaturally powerful, imbued with stat-boosts and other advantageous effects. She would have to pay a fee for a metal-worker to handle the material, but it would be vastly cheaper than purchasing the gear outright from the Exchange.

Today—and tomorrow—was a 'career day' of sorts, advertising potential options, since many students hadn't chosen their extracurricular yet. Undoubtedly most had given the topic plenty of thought before arriving to Tenet, but common strategy was to pick a harvesting discipline that matched your class, which wasn't received until eighteen. Jordan, for example, never would have gone into herb-gathering without having received a class that seemed—so far—inclined toward poisons. Similarly, Natalie wouldn't have considered mining if she hadn't received a class—paladin, a heavy armor tank—that made good use of the ores she'd collect.

For two hours—the alloted extracurricular time block set by the Tenet schedule—Natalie wandered the various stations advertising their clubs. She spent the majority of her time at the mining station, listening to the lecturers and picking through the provided information.

Unsurprisingly, the profession was more complicated than Natalie had first thought. Not simply bashing a pickaxe into veins of material and hauling away the valuable resource, Natalie would need to spend fair effort both prospecting for and extracting the ore. Even so, it had a reputation for not being the most complex task. Jordan's chosen profession—herb gathering—would require a nauseating amount of memorization: the ten million variations of plants found in the dungeon.

So while not simple, it was simpler than many disciplines, which meant mining was up Natalie's alley, who didn't care enough to put excessive effort into her extracurricular. By the end of the informational speeches, she felt confident enough she would be committing to mining that she signed her name on the provided sheet. Tomorrow, she would spend her two hours at the mining hall, rather than continuing to explore the career fair.

With that event out of the way, and with the official school day completed, Natalie set out—reasonably—to practice. She was already drained from the previous nine hours, but delvers needed to be accustomed to long days. Some delves lasted entire weeks. Not for low-rankers, true, but high rankers, much less top rankers?

Apparently, trips to the Lower Reaches, much less The Depths or The Abyss—the last categorization of dungeon levels comprising twenty-one to twenty-four, and near mythical to the general populace—could take entire weeks to explore properly.

So, Natalie needed to accustom to long days. Nine hours of classes—both combat and academic—had been draining, but she would make use of the rest of the day, regardless. Plus, she'd be taking a break in the form of the upcoming start-of-semester party, soon enough. Until then, she had a few hours to keep refining the most glaring weakness of hers. Which was to say, illusions—or magic in general.

Natalie's idea was far from unique. The training facility was almost as packed as it had been in the morning, when attendance was mandatory. She worked her way through the halls mostly from memory, then found her way out into the courtyard—the same one she'd taken classes with Tess in.

There, she scooped up a hammer from the rack of prop weapons and got to work.

The noises and distractions—both visual, and the odder sort of pressure in her head of magic filling the air—faded to the background as she fell into a routine. Frustrating as this process was, she was getting better. Especially now that she hadn't locked herself into minimizing movement, like many mages did. Natalie had always been a hands-on girl. There was a reason she thrived in physical fights.

So, being able to gesture and link the swinging of her weapon to her illusion spell helped massively. She even thought she might be able to work something simple into spars tomorrow. Definitely, she'd have a grasp—a bare, bare grasp—on the ability by the time next week rolled around, and Tenet allowed them to start delving.

She practiced her 'flash' spell, first and foremost. It was the simplest application she could imagine that would be useful. But as thirty minutes ticked into an hour, and sweat beaded on her forehead, she started playing with other ideas. More complex illusions, which weren't as difficult to construct as she'd have thought. Or, maybe she was getting better.

There were many illusions Natalie could imagine being useful in a fight. Misdirection was crucial, and rather than feints of a normal sort, could Natalie cover herself with an illusion and mask the direction her attacks came from? A literal feint, where her blow came from a false direction? For that matter, could she make herself invisible? How about other distracting images? Something grotesque, that made her opponent hesitate? The flash was useful, but perhaps a crude, unrefined first idea. Could she do better?

That gave her pause. Unbidden, a 'more refined', yet ironically, more crude, idea popped into her head.

A flash ... of a different sort. That would be effective, wouldn't it? For drawing attention, or distracting someone?

Natalie flushed, glancing around the courtyard as if someone could read her mind. Rather than a grotesque image, or a blinding burst of light, what if Natalie conjured ... other sorts of imagery that was distracting?

Would that even be allowed? Well ... of course. While it would be odd, Tenet didn't put puritan restrictions on how a student could fight. Victory at all costs was the motto of the dungeon, and while dueling had slight restrictions on combat, general spars didn't. So lewd illusions to stumble her opponent? On the table ... just weird. And would probably earn her a reputation.

Again, glancing around the courtyard out of paranoia, Natalie saw no one was paying attention to her. Obviously. They were occupied with their own training. No one was even close enough to see what she planned to do.

Blushing, she turned back forward. She felt compelled to test her newest idea, even if complex imagery had been hit-or-miss.

She steadied her thoughts, focused, drew mana, and executed a natural-feeling pivot, activating [Illusion] with a swipe of her weapon. The motion was becoming quickly instinctive.

She kept it small, barely the size of her hand, so that nobody saw on the off chance they looked over.

It worked.

Except, it wasn't a hazy image, hard to conjure and maintain, but bright, clear, and so much better than anything else she'd managed so far.

A naked, hand-sized copy of Jordan hung in the air. Natalie's brain blanked out, seeing it. She hadn't meant for it to be Jordan. She'd let her instincts guide her, the first thing to pop into her head.

Panicking, Natalie waved her hand through the mist-like illusion and dispelled the image. Her face burned scarlet, and she frantically looked around, but again, nobody was looking her way. Why would they be?

Still, why had she done that? Tested the idea at all ... much less with Jordan?

Natalie swallowed, then checked the clock hanging on the courtyard wall. She had about an hour before she needed to go take a shower and head to the party to meet up with Sammy.

Enough time to do a little more testing.

Just, probably not here. Too indiscreet. Too likely to get caught, considering what she wanted to try.

Natalie hung up the hammer in the weapon rack, then scurried away, headed for a secluded bathroom in the training facility.

With how easily the first illusion had come into life, how much more could she do?

2.10 - ❤ Illusion Training

Natalie closed the bathroom stall door, heart pounding. She could feel the heat on her face, radiating from her. Why was she so excited? And how suspicious had she looked, fleeing through the hallways in her rush for privacy?

Maybe they'd assumed she'd worked up a sweat? That she was flushed for a normal reason? She hoped so.

Swallowing, finally in the freedom of a private bathroom stall, she took stock of her situation. Why was she doing this? Sure, the idea to use her illusions in a lewd way had merit as a unique, shocking implementation of the skill, but she'd be lying if she said that was the primary reason she'd rushed off. Her heart slammed a little too hard for even her to believe that.

And why had Jordan been the person who'd manifested back in the courtyard? Natalie had vaguely been trying to summon a 'sexy image', so her thoughts shouldn't have turned to Jordan. Those stupid kisses ... and the grinding session from yesterday ... were really having an effect on Natalie. A devastating one. Even if Jordan was willing to help Natalie out with her class, Natalie shouldn't be wondering what she looked like naked.

Or felt like. Or tasted like.

She shook the thoughts away.

Experimentation.

She had tests to carry out. Maybe she couldn't lie to herself and say that this idea was completely for practical reasons, but it did have a functional purpose. The inappropriate image had been so much easier to conjure than others. Why?

The answer seemed obvious. Her class was 'Paladin of Lust'. She could advance her skills by kissing and groping other girls. Of course her [Illusion] spell would be inclined to images of that variety. That Natalie hadn't considered it before this point was ridiculous. Proof, even, that she was failing to confront the reality of her situation. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of her class.