Chapter 294

She and Vanetta spent the three hours before the next reset checking out the various stores of the city. There were all manner of goods, not just weapons, armor, and trinkets, but potions and even raw resources—whatever a person wanted to grind out Tokens for, they could.

Naturally, foot-traffic was heaviest in the armor and weapon shops, but she and Vanetta still spent some time looking at the others. While many of the items had a lewd bent to them, there were plenty of regular items too. Extremely high quality healing potions, for one, which Natalie made a note of. And some more interesting potions too, though she put those out of her thoughts, for now. She had other things to focus on.

Before she knew it, an enormous bell was echoing through the city, announcing the new wave of assignments. In the city of eternal twilight, that was the only means of easy time keeping. The bell rang from some distant clock tower twice per day, once every twelve hours. Acacia had informed them that this one was the ‘midday’ bell, and the next one would be the ‘midnight’ bell—simply an agreed-upon standard for the city folk to standardize schedules. Though people bustled about at any hour, there was more activity after the midday bell, and the midnight bell was when most people retired to their rooms to sleep—after checking to see what their morning assignment would be come morning, of course.

“Looks like it’s time,” Vanetta said, walking up to Natalie, who’d been inspecting a pair of boots.

“Looks like it is,” she agreed.

They walked out into the streets, and the various Cityfolk had emerged from the many stores like rats out of the woodwork. They streamed in the direction of the palace, a mixture of expressions on their faces: curiosity, apprehension, nervousness, and in some cases, excitement. Everyone wanted to know what this cycle’s assignment would be, though they had varying levels of enthusiasm.

It still felt surreal to see so many delvers walking about. They were in the dungeon. What the hell.

“We should talk,” Vanetta said. “The board is going to be swarmed, anyway. I’m not sure if I want to elbow my way to the front.”

The boards were broken up by name, and spread out, so while there would be a crowd, it probably wouldn’t be as bad as Vanetta implied. But Natalie stopped walking and turned to her partner.

“Talk about what?”

Vanetta seemed vaguely nervous, chewing on her bottom lip. The girl had opened up in their time together, or maybe Natalie could read her better. Going through bizarre experiences tended to break the ice. Still, she was reserved by nature, so she studied Natalie quietly before replying.

“Acacia said the City’s assignments aren’t random, and teammates are often paired together, if there’s ... chemistry ... between them. I wanted to talk about how that might affect the team before it happens.”

A mature approach. She grimaced. It was obvious who Vanetta was referencing. Suddenly irritated, Natalie glanced away, “Elida and I will deal with that when we get there. Even if we hate each other’s guts, and things become worse because of the City meddling, we can still be on a team together.” She was certain of that.

“Okay,” Vanetta said. “But that’s not ... entirely what I meant. Is there anyone else on the team that might get dragged into an assignment with you?”

Natalie blinked.

“Who’s in the city right now, for example,” Vanetta said flatly, unamused she hadn’t understood right away.

“Are you asking if I want to fuck you?” Natalie asked in surprise.

She hadn’t meant to be so blunt; she’d just been caught off guard.

And, as Natalie already knew, the shorter girl clearly wasn’t used to addressing such topics so directly. Her face closed off, the forcible smooth composure of someone hiding their real reaction. Natalie could still read her posture easy enough though: the suddenly rigid spine. She was annoyed or angry, and ... embarrassed?

“I think it’s better if we talked about it beforehand, as I said. We’re still in the dungeon. We need to be professionals.”

“Right,” Natalie said. She scrambled for what to say. “And ... you want ... honesty?”

Vanetta’s posture became even more rigid. She abruptly spun away and began to walk. “Never mind,” she said tightly. “It was a stupid question. The answer is obvious.” Her shoulders hunched forward and she stalked in the direction of the Palace.