Harem Master - RPG story Ch. 003

"What skills do you want me to upgrade?" Asher asked, certain that she analyzed it yesterday and had made her decision.

"I want a Powerful Attack for sure," Elara declared, biting her lip as she thought for a moment. "And Master Essence."

Surprised, Asher nodded his head. Powerful Attack was the obvious choice, but he thought she would go with Fast Attack, and only now he realized that would be stupid. Fast Attack granted her five agility for a single attack, and Master Essence offered the same value all the time, at least when she had his cum in her body. He looked at her stomach, she already had it in her. When he would add this skill, she would have additional points.

This way she could have bonus points through all the fight, not only for one attack. The only condition was to swallow his load before the fight. And he wasn't going to complain about that. He focused on upgrading the skills that she wanted. As with his skills previously, there weren't any special events or information while adding her new skills. The points just vanished, and the new skills showed up on her class status.

"Done," Asher informed after making sure it worked. Elara closed her eyes, and it took her a moment to read through the descriptions of her new skills.

"Yeah, I have them now in my skills list," she confirmed, opening her eyes. Asher noticed her cheeks blush a little. "And I have this passive boost to agility." Asher noticed it when he was checking her class status that right now she had fourteen agility points. She was fast before, but with this boost, Asher believed she would be the fastest at the Academy, and Elara would be able to take advantage of this.

"Okay, let's go," Elara commanded, moving towards the door. Asher groaned exaggeratedly, causing her to giggle, but he followed after her anyway.

He closed the door to his house and turned towards Elara.

"Come on, let's do our last training here," she said, turning towards the entrance between the trees of the nearby forest. They lived outside a small city, at the edge of the woods. They had five minutes of walking until they were between the first trees.

As kids, they spent a lot of time there, playing together and discovering the secrets of the forest. It was large, so even after years, they still only knew the nearby surroundings. But when they needed some area to train to become explorers, they instantly knew where to find a place.

Asher caught up to Elara and walked next to her, but they stayed silent. They entered between the trees, and Asher reminded himself of the times when as kids they climbed on every tree they came across. He looked around them as they strolled towards their training spot. He had tons of memories from this place.

Practically every single one of them involved Elara, they were part of each other's lives, and he couldn't imagine his without her. He looked at her from the side. She was almost as tall as him, slim, and athletic. She was gorgeous and confident. Asher considered himself extremely lucky that she fell in love with him.

She could have any guy that she would want, but for some reason she chose him. Asher grabbed her hand, and when she glanced at him, he smiled. Without words she squeezed his hand and with a grin turned forward again.

They entered the small clearing that served them as their training place for the last few years. Free of trees in a flattened circle shape, the ground was covered in grass. When they first found it, the grass was tall to their hips, but they started to cut it when they decided to make their place out of it.

It was their spot. They started training around the same time when they became a couple over five years ago. Here, their relationship grew through the years, this was the place where they used to hide from their parents.

When Asher fantasized about being intimate with her, that was the place, hidden from the world, and only for them. In the end, they did it for the first time at her house, but maybe they had a chance to fulfill his fantasy before they left for the Academy and play here today.

Asher looked at Elara, and she was kneeling next to the bush that they used as storage for their weapons and training gear. Her ass looked amazing in her shorts. Asher groaned, even if they could do something today, first he would need to go through training with Elara. He moved towards her a few steps, she grabbed the pair of daggers that she was using as her main weapon.

The blades were very simple, straight, and made out of steel. They didn't come from the dungeon, but they were fine as training weapons that she had used for the last few years.

Asher glanced at the shield and sword that he had been using so far, now they were practically useless for him. He sighed, sweeping his eyes over the weapons that weren't for him anymore, his gaze stopped at the small bow. He had created it years ago to test it out, and both he and Elara had decided that it wasn't for them.

But now? With his support class, maybe he could use some ranged weapon, it still wouldn't be any good, probably more for distraction rather than for damage, but at least he could take part in a fight in some way and not feel useless.

Asher grabbed it along with a few arrows they had. He sensed Elara stepping next to him, and she closed her arms around him in a hug.

"It will be okay, Ash," she whispered, putting her head under his chin. They stood there for a minute before Elara pulled away from him. "I know it's not what you expected, but we always knew that we could get some other class than the melee one. You can give your team amazing boosts," Glancing at the bow in his hand, she frowned, but then returned to a neutral expression. "That's a good idea, you can still use ranged weapons and help us."

Asher sighed again, he was aware that it would be more for him to feel comfortable rather than really have any meaning without stats or skills.

"You'll get your stats in time, from your team. That's what's important in exploring in the end. About a strong team, and we will create one like this," Elara added when he didn't answer her.

She moved a step back. "Okay, let's try it out. Maybe you have a talent for shooting." Elara motioned towards a tree as the target. Asher knew that he didn't have talent, and Elara probably remembered their failed tries years ago too, but she wanted to make him feel better somehow.

Asher lifted the bow in his left hand and put the arrow on the string. He had constructed it for them when they started their training, so it was too small for him, and without any experience with bows he felt weird and uncomfortable pulling the string.

He aimed at the tree closest to him, which he chose as the target. It was around thirty feet away from them. He was sure he would miss, but he still tried to align it correctly and released the arrow when it looked fine. The arrow struck the ground halfway between him and the tree, clearly too far to the left side.

"Not the best start," he said, irritated. It didn't make sense, he didn't want to use a bow, he couldn't use it, and he wouldn't give them anything with it anyway. Elara wanted to say something, but he grabbed another arrow, not giving her a chance.

This time, he aimed higher and tried to hold the weapon firmer. But rushing into it didn't make the result better. The arrow flew higher, and this time it reached the tree, but passed next to it by a few feet.

Asher grabbed arrow after arrow, shooting them at the same tree. He needed a few more shots until the first arrow actually hit the target.

Elara clapped her hands, but when Asher looked at her, she grimaced, realizing it wasn't a good idea to pretend it was a success. Both of them knew it wasn't going to work, but at the moment, Asher didn't really have any other options in his mind.

"We both know that was probably an accident," Asher murmured subdued.

Elara frowned. "You know what? We'll need to find a ranger for our team anyway. She could teach you how to shoot. That's probably the best way to handle this."

Asher nodded, looking at the bow. He really didn't want to train any more with it, and he wasn't sure if help from someone who could shoot would help him in any way, but he was happy to leave it for now. "I would just leave it." He moved back to their weapons and dropped the bow there.

Asher looked to Elara. "Maybe we will just focus on your training for now?" he offered.

Elara wanted to respond, but rustling made her stop. Both of them turned towards the source. It sounded like something was running through the forest.

They were in a pretty abandoned part of the forest. For all the years they had trained here, they never met a single person. Sometimes small animals wandered around, but this sounded like something much bigger than anything they had seen here before.

Asher moved towards Elara, while she corrected the grip on her training daggers. "What do you think it is?" Asher asked. "It doesn't sound like any small animal," he added.

Elara nodded, looking carefully between trees. "But it also doesn't sound like a human. Maybe it's some bigger animal. A wolf?"

"There aren't wolves in this forest," Asher answered, frowning. As far as he knew, there weren't any big animals in this forest. He was certain that was one of the reasons their parents allowed them to play here from their youngest age.

Asher realized that the noise was getting louder. "It's coming towards us," he stated. It shouldn't be a big deal, but he had a bad hunch, so he looked at the weapons. He couldn't use the bow if they needed to fight against some animal. The chances that he would hit Elara were too big.

He grabbed a pike that he had created. It was a long-distance weapon, so he would just hold the animal at a distance, distracting it, while Elara would attack it with her daggers. Ultimately, he hoped it would just run away when it saw his weapon.

And then Asher noticed it and froze. He was shocked because it clearly wasn't an animal. He hadn't ever seen one before, but he was pretty certain what was coming towards them. Even if it was still obscured by trees, he recognized that it was a monster. A monster from a dungeon. Here, in their forest, clearly outside of a dungeon.

"What?" Elara asked at his side. Asher wasn't an expert about monsters, but if he had to guess, it was a Goblin. Maybe half of their height, skinny, with long limbs. It had green skin, in the shade of dark rotten grass. It had pointy ears, a wide mouth full of sharp teeth, and was looking straight at them with wild eyes.

It was moving quickly on its long, lean legs, and directly at them. It was naked, and Asher was sure he could see its dick swinging between the monster's legs, but he was more focused on its hands. Or rather, what it was holding. It was a small sword. With its eyes focused on them, Asher was sure that this goblin wanted to use its weapon on them.

The monster was attacking them, outside of a dungeon. Asher had heard rumors lately that monsters started to behave weird. Leaving the dungeon terrain, but not through known entrances. No one really knew how they were escaping.

But they were, and attacking people outside of a dungeon. Many believed that this was only gossip, but right now, the Goblin was charging at them, and he glanced at Elara, worried if fighting against it was a good idea.

---

Elara prepared herself to fight against monsters for the last few years, but she always thought it would be in dungeons as a team. Not attacked in a forest, when she was only with Asher. She took position to fight, and waited while the monster rushed towards them.

When it was about thirty feet from them, Elara inspected the monster. Information about it popped into her head, confirming that it was a Goblin. Elara sighed with relief. It was only level one with fifty health points. Goblins were one of the basic monsters, but with a higher level, it would be challenging to fight against it with only two people.

She glanced at Asher and realized that, truthfully, it was one person. He couldn't take part in this fight, at least not directly. But Elara obtained new skills from him. The Goblin had fifty health points, she had climaxed before they came here, so she could use her Powerful Attack. Landing it would deal half of the Goblin's health.

It was closing the distance between them, moving quickly. She would need to deal with the rest of the health points, but she could handle it.

"Asher, you can't fight against it. It's too risky. I'll take care of it. Back off," Elara didn't have time to say it more gently to make sure that he understood. The Goblin was a few steps from them.

"Move back," she shouted when Asher didn't react. This time he looked at her, an unhappy frown on his face, but he stepped back a few feet.

Elara didn't have more time for anything. The Goblin charged at her and cut with its sword vertically. She dodged to the side and followed with her own dagger to cut at her enemy. She hit the Goblin, cutting its torso, and red blood gushed from its wound.

Elara jumped back, barely avoiding the sword that swung in the place where she had just been, almost cutting her leg.

Elara paused, shocked at how fast she was moving. Much faster than she ever had before. Master Essence was active, granting her five additional points in agility, but it seemed like even more. When she checked her status hurriedly, she realized that Asher activated his Partner Enhancement, adding her an additional ten more points. With all of the boosts, she had twenty four agility points, almost three times more than what she had basically.

Elara thought that Asher was really underestimating his class and what it provides.

She looked at the Goblin. Her daggers didn't originate from a dungeon, they lacked additional statistics, and Elara only dealt damage equal to her strength.

With new agility and how fast she was, she could dodge attacks from her opponent, and with enough of her own blows, she would kill it. But concerned that the Goblin can change its focus to Asher, she needed to take an offensive role.

He was too easy a target, she couldn't allow the Goblin to attack her boyfriend. Elara decided to keep the focus of the monster on herself, and the best way to achieve that was through attacking it constantly.

Elara reacted instinctively, leaning back with a step, when the sword came from her left side. She got distracted with her own thoughts, and the Goblin rushed to attack her again. With a new plan to be an aggressor, she moved forward to attack, trying to cut from the upper left with her dagger, but the Goblin dived under and kicked her leg.

She stumbled onto her knee, the Goblin trying to hit from above. Reacting through instinct, she barely blocked it with her dagger, feeling the strength of the blow. She realized that Asher wouldn't have a chance to stop it.

Elara rolled back and jumped to her feet. With her Powerful Attack still available she was looking for an opportunity. She couldn't afford to miss it. Coming up with an idea, she moved a step forward, but stopped. The opponent took it as an occasion and moved to strike at her.

Elara activated her Powerful Attack. When the Goblin pushed his sword straight into her, she turned her body. The edge of the sword cut through her blouse and skin, causing sharp pain in her side. Fortunately, it wasn't a deep cut, and Elara hit the Goblin in the head with her dagger.

It stumbled back a few steps, looking dizzy. She moved fast to attack again, using the moment of confusion from her opponent. Before it had a chance to block the hit, she stabbed it straight in the chest.

Elara jumped back immediately, predicting some form of counter attack. The Goblin was bleeding from its chest and head. It still had twenty health points. Four more hits, Elara counted.

She thought about her options, or rather, the lack of them. She couldn't use her Fast Attack. With the negative effect, her attack would not deal any damage.

Asher removing the negative effect would be amazing, making it a much better skill all of a sudden.

The Goblin moved towards her, lacking its earlier speed. Wounds were taking a toll on it.

Elara bounced forward, striking first, and it worked just as she predicted, surprising her opponent.

Her dagger cut the arm of the Goblin, and when she moved past it, she slashed again on its back, turning around.

The Goblin tried to turn around, striking with its sword, but Elara wanted to finish the battle. She closed the distance with her opponent, blocking its sword with her dagger, and spun in place to cut at the creature in front of her.

The Goblin, after the last cut, in an act of desperation, jumped forward at her, but she placed both of her weapons between them, and the creature impaled itself on them. Elara pushed at the Goblin, whose lifeless body fell to the ground.

She glanced at her defeated opponent, the first monster that she fought against. It attacked them outside of a dungeon. Fortunately, she had her weapons with her.

Elara noticed Asher moving in the corner of her eye and realized that having him here was tremendous help. In reality, she won because of his boosts and skills.

He had a look of concern on his face as he gently touched her side where she had been cut.

"Are you okay?" Elara flinched lightly at the contact, and he backed his hand.

"Yeah, it's nothing deep. I lost like six health points from it. So I'll be fine in a moment." Asher hugged her, careful not to touch her wound again.

"Good job, El," he whispered into her ear. "You were amazing, but maybe next time try not to get hit?" Elara could see that he was still concerned. She pulled him into a kiss and lightly bit his lip, pulling on it when moving back.

"I'm really fine. Everything was under control," she assured him.

Asher pecked her on the lips and sighed. "I need to upgrade this healing skill. Maybe I'll upgrade it now to heal you?" he offered.

Elara thought about it for only a second. "I'll be back to full health in an hour with my natural health regeneration, better leave this point for something else. Partner Enhancement helped me in this fight much more than healing could."

"I granted you a boost in agility rather than strength so you could move faster and not get hurt in a fight," he said, looking down at her wounded side with a frown.

She considered this while staring at the goblin's body. "Yeah, that was a good choice. It could have been bad if I had been slower." Elara bit her lip. "How the fuck did this goblin show up here?" She kicked its body lightly.

"The gossip we heard was true. Monsters are getting out of dungeons somehow." Asher kneeled by the side of the creature's body.

"It's fortunate that it didn't find someone else first. Things could have turned out much worse," he added.

Elara glanced down at her boyfriend and noticed that he was looking at her side again. She pulled her shirt up to show him the wound. It wasn't bleeding and was already healing. Small wounds from dungeon monsters were healing without leaving a trace. Only really serious injuries could leave scars or damage your body permanently.

Elara assessed that her side would be fine without any scar. By tomorrow, there wouldn't be any trace of it.

She closed her eyes, focusing on her status. She gained nineteen percent of her level from this fight. Smiling, she looked at Asher. "Hey, check your class level. Did you gain exp points?"

He closed his eyes and opened them after a moment. "Nineteen percent."

"Same as me," Elara answered.

"I didn't even hit it once," Asher said, frowning in confusion.

Elara sighed. "You're a support. You get involved in fights by giving boosts. It must be enough to give you experience points."

He nodded and turned towards the goblin's body. "You should check it for loot."