Chapter 287

They entered that familiar routine. Setting a path for the City of Eros in the far distance, Natalie and Vanetta carved their way through monsters at a steady pace.

The expedition would have been decently long even without obstacles. Throw in life-or-death fights every few minutes, and progress was slow and grueling. If, admittedly, in a way that Natalie liked. The fights were difficult enough to be a challenge, but her growing strength alongside the incredibly skilled Vanetta meant that, really, the fights were more of a way to stretch her muscles and work out aggression than real danger. Great stress relief, in short.

She brought her skills to bear when a fight started sloppily or when they were caught unaware, but for the most part, she simply relied on her strength and [Valentine], rarely having to draw on her mana.

It was a good thing Natalie had brought extra monster cores, since it seemed these creatures didn’t drop any. Not that they were running into loot chests—those were probably located in ‘points of interest’ buildings they’d spotted—but they eventually would, and if she hadn’t carried spares, that would have been a logistical annoyance.

Their collection of Tokens grew at a steady rate. Natalie couldn’t help but wonder what they would be spent on, eventually. What sorts of wares would be hawked at a place like the City of Eros? How would such a shop even be manned? By monsters? Would there be sentient creatures like Malice there? More than ever, Natalie wondered about the deeper nature of the dungeon. When she returned, it might be time to ‘bully out’ more information from the wolfgirl.

They took breaks as needed. As level threes, their staminas had extended well past a regular human’s, but the fights they engaged in were proportionally as exhausting: no regular human could swing [Valentine] as easily as she did or dash as swiftly as Vanetta. So despite their stamina, they needed breathers.

During this down time, Natalie found herself striking up conversations with the dark-haired girl. She was pretty sure Vanetta could have sat through the breaks in silence and not minded, or maybe she might even have preferred that, but she didn’t seem annoyed, at least, when Natalie began talking.

In fact, Natalie suspected Vanetta was as interested in finding out more about her as she was in return. Because she was also not-so-subtly digging for information during their chats.

“You know,” Vanetta said. “Elida warned us about you.”

The statement came somewhat out of nowhere, after a lapse in the conversation.

“Warned you?” Natalie asked. “About what?”

“You have a reputation. At Tenet. Even I knew about it, and I don’t pay attention to our classmates.”

Natalie had an idea of what ‘reputation’ she was talking about. But to make sure, she warily asked, “And what reputation is that?”

Vanetta side-eyed her. “Is it true your whole team is sleeping with you?”

Even forewarned of the topic, Natalie hadn’t expected that level of bluntness. She floundered for a second, words failing her.

“I— that— if it were true, which I’m not saying it is,” mostly because of Liz’s reputation as a Beaumon, and that Natalie doubted she wanted their dalliances to be public, “it’s kind of a rude thing to just ask.”

“Is it?” Vanetta asked. “I didn’t mean to be rude. I was just wondering. You five seem very close.”

“We are,” Natalie said, and decided to leave it ambiguous. “Where did that question come from?”

“Elida warned us that you might try to sleep with one of us,” Vanetta said. “Or all of us.”

Again, Natalie floundered for a response. The continued bluntness caught her off guard.

“She also said this delve might become a bit strange,” Vanetta continued. “That you’re a person of ... particular influence. She was vague. I’m pretty sure it was implied she didn’t want me repeating any of this to you. But.” She shrugged, implying that she didn’t care what Elida had implied she should keep quiet about. Vanetta respected Elida’s combat proficiency, but clearly there was no deep loyalty between them. When Elida dropped party members on a whim to pick up new ones, Natalie couldn’t say she was surprised those teammates—both new and old—weren’t very endeared by her.

“And then all of this started happening,” Vanetta said. “With these tokens.” She was playing with one as they spoke, turning it back and forth in her fingers. Like all other Tokens of Eros, it had a rose on the front and a lewd image on the back, though this one was more chaste than the others: just a woman’s bare back and shoulders, long hair running down to cover her ass. “I think I’m piecing a few things together, by now,” Vanetta said. “Elida also changes the dungeon when she goes into it.”

Natalie tried not to let a reaction show too visibly. She’d expected she would need to slowly tease out information about Elida through observation, or perhaps in their post-delve talk. But had she found a resource in the form of Vanetta? Who obviously wanted her own answers in return.