17 17

Eina watches Ziggy walk out of the Guild, a little troubled by what he said. Is she too naive about adventurers? He's right that Falna doesn't grow without pushing the limits, but it's so dangerous. One mistake and people die. How do you balance the need to develop with the need to live? It seemed so simple to her before. You can't grow if you don't have your life, but at the same time, without risk and pushing beyond their limits, adventurers can't advance, and the Dungeon will eventually overwhelm the world.

A click behind her draws Eina's attention. Rose peaks her head out of the door. Her face is impassive, but Eina can see the redness around her eyes. Seeing Eina, Rose freezes in place for a split second before coming out of the room and closing the door.

She starts to walk toward the back of the Guild but stops. "D-do you think he's right?" she asks, not looking at Eina. "Am I just hiding away and walking down a path to loneliness?"

Eina's emotions are complicated. She's been worried about Rose for a while and wanted to try to reach out to the woman herself, but Ziggy also made her question her own methods and choices. So, she was hesitant to offer criticism, even in the form of affirming another's critique.

After a few seconds of standing there, Rose starts to walk away, no longer expecting an answer.

"I don't know..." Eina says, bringing Rose up short. "Not about everything, or maybe I... Regardless, I'm sure he cares, which should mean something. I'm still thinking about the rest."

Rose stays still another few seconds and then finally walks into the back rooms of the Guild. Eina watches her until she's gone from sight and then turns back to the front, schooling her face into a pleasant mask, but inside, her thoughts tumble.

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Ziggy had a restless sleep. He still wasn't in a very good head space. He skipped dinner and went to bed early, cuddling with Yue until he nodded off. He felt her get up at one point, probably to use the bathroom, and come back a few minutes later.

She crawls into the bed once more and rolls her back against Ziggy. Still mostly asleep, Ziggy rolls over and wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her into his embrace. He nuzzles into her neck and smiles when he feels her shiver.

Her skin smells delicately of jasmine and honey, and this causes Ziggy to frown a little. Yue smells like vanilla and cinnamon; this is an entirely different scent. Yue isn't the one that smells like jasmine and honey. That's...

Ziggy opens his eyes to see the gently trembling form of another girl he is very familiar with.

"Asuka," Ziggy says, and she freezes in place. "Does this mean you've decided?"

She stays still for a moment and then nods. Ziggy lets out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. He pushes himself onto an arm, looks down at the cute girl, and strokes the side of her face with his free hand, gently guiding her to look at him.

Leaning down, he touches her nose with his own and rubs it back and forth. "You don't have to be nervous, you silly girl," he says with a smile. "I'm still me, and you're still you. Did you think I was just going to ravish you before you were ready?"

She squirms a little. "W-well, Yue said that-"

Ziggy shakes his head. "Let me stop you there," he says. "Yue is an entirely different person than you and has different wants and needs. If I didn't insist upon at least one date and some time to get to know one another, she was ready to jump me last night.

Everyone has a different zone of comfort, and while pushing those levels a little isn't necessarily a bad thing, there is no reason to jump out of them completely. We'll move our relationship at our pace. Yue doesn't get a say in that. Okay?"

Asuka nods. "S-so, what do we do now?" she asks.

Ziggy shrugs. "Whatever you're comfortable with. Can I kiss you?"

She swallows and then bites her lip before nodding once.

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Hours earlier, Asuka had been standing in front of Ziggy's bedroom door, wringing her hands nervously and mumbling to herself, when Yue walked up.

She looked between Asuka and Ziggy's bedroom door. "Are you going in?" she asked.

Asuka jumped. "What!?"

"I asked if you were going in," Yue said. Yue was familiar with Asuka as she and the rest of the girls from Ziggy's team had spent some time with the other teams living in the Peach Blossom Palace.

"Oh," Asuka said, wringing her hands once more. "I-I don't think I should. He seemed to want to be alone when he returned, and I don't want to bother him."

"Fine," Yue said and walked up to the door.

"W-what are you doing?" Asuka asked.

"I'm better equipped to deal with his mood. Come back before you go to bed. You can see him then," Yue said and turned around to knock on the door.

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Ten minutes before Ziggy kissed her, Asuka stood once more in front of the door to his room, wringing her hands. What she wanted to say to him was something that she almost couldn't believe. It scared her. It wasn't logical. She'd only known him a week. They'd been on one date, for heaven's sake. Yet here she was, ready to tell him that she wanted to be with him, that she didn't care if he had a harem of other women.

"It's stupid," she mumbled, just as she had hours ago. "Maybe I should think about it some more. Mikoto and Chigusa have me all confused. They were supposed to talk me out of this. Why aren't they telling me I am being stupid?"

The door clicked open, and Asuka jumped back. Yue stuck her head out of the door. "It's about time. Hurry up. I left the bed warm for you," Yue said.

"W-what!?" Asuka chirped.

Yue rolled her eyes. "He's asleep. If you are careful, he won't even realize you're there until the morning. And you'll have had all night to figure out why you are there."

"W-why were YOU there?" Asuka asked, hoping to find a clue for her own reason.

"Don't expect an answer that makes a lot of sense," Yue said after a brief pause. "Sometimes, the heart picks up on subtle things that our logical minds aren't aware of. Don't worry if you're confused; he doesn't get it, either. He's still trying to 'get to know me.' Whatever that's supposed to mean.

I won't say it's a case of love at first sight. Although, I think the goddess specifically put our team together with that intention. Before I came here, I had been expecting to be part of an arranged marriage from a young age. My life from before is gone, and now I can choose my own partner. I want someone that feels right. He feels... right to me."

Asuka just stared at her, confused. Yue shook her head and guided the befuddled Asuka into the room before leaving and closing the door behind her. Asuka stood at the edge of the bed, watching Ziggy sleep. 'He feels right to her?' she thought. 'How does he feel to me?'

After a couple of minutes, she crawled into the bed next to Ziggy. Her heart was pounding, and her mind ran in circles, but she felt like it was the right place to be.

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The next morning, Asuka had a smile on her face when she went to get breakfast. This was immediately noticed by the other ladies in the room, and she soon found herself pinned between Mikoto and Chigusa.

"Did you do it?" Chigusa asks.

"How was it? Did it hurt?" Mikoto says.

"W-wh-what?" Asuka says, stuttering, not expecting a rapid-fire third-degree. "I-I-I-"

A tray of food is set down across from the trio, and Yue takes a seat. "You should let her catch her breath. It's obvious that she didn't do it last night," Yue says, putting a spoonful of food in her mouth.

"How do you know?" Mikoto asks.

"Yeah, how do you know?" Chigusa says, interested in the answer.

"Easy, she's here, isn't she?" Yue says. "If you were with the guy you wanted and had done that, do you think you'd be quick to come to breakfast and not lounge in bed?"

"Oh..." the two girls say, not noticing their friend dying of embarrassment.

"Besides, I've seen Ziggy's thing. If they had really done it, she wouldn't be able to walk normally all day," Yue says, putting another spoonful of food in her mouth.

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

"..."

Yue looks between the three girls. "What don't you understand?" she asks. "Ziggy is a large man with abilities that increase his libido. We, Asuka and I, while enhanced by Falna, are still rather petite women. It's not just for him that Ziggy requires a harem. It is unlikely that either of us could conceivably keep up with his body's demands. Having sisters to share the burden and the pleasure will certainly help."

"I'm already working on the stupid rabbit and the rest of our team to give Ziggy a variety to slake his lust with," Yue says, pointing at another table where Shea and Tio are eating breakfast.

"L-l-lu-lust!?" Asuka says, her complexion pale.

The other two are burning cherry red in embarrassment from Yue's casual use of sexual terms.

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Ziggy knocks on the door. A moment later, it opens a crack, and Shizuku, dressed in a pink camisole and loose-fitting pants, peeks out.

"How is she?" he asks.

Shizuku sighs and opens the door, letting Ziggy into the bedroom she shares with Kaori.

Kaori is curled up on the bed staring at the wall. Ziggy sighs, grabs a chair from the desk, and brings it over to the bed. He sits down and watches her blank expression for a few minutes. After spending time with Asuka last night, he felt much better and decided to look in on his traumatized teammate.

It also gave him an excuse to try out the Dreamwalker aspect of his Sanguis Cambionis Skill.

Dreamwalker was instinctive to use, but not easy to manipulate his dreamform to find Kaori. While trying to find her dream, he'd accidentally passed through several other people's dreams. Some were innocent enough, and some were lewd to the point that even he was embarrassed.

It was also somewhat surprising how often a version of him appeared in others' dreams. Some of them were a bit strange, to say the least. The most disturbing of them was Huangdi, the captain of the Xuannu Familia.

It wasn't that in Huangdi's dream, Goddess Xuannu and her two sisters dressed in harem-girl chic, specifically slave harem-girl chic, complete with chains and collars, and it wasn't that the six Ding sisters and his wife Lei Zu were dressed much the same way. It was the fact that in the dream, Huangdi was outside a window looking in as a sinister-looking dream-Ziggy had his way with Lei Zu, and Huangdi seemed to be all about it.

Ziggy just slowly backed out of the dream and swore to himself to avoid Huangdi's dreams from then on. 'Everyone has their kinks,' he thought, shuddering. 'That's just not mine. Though, I was right that Lei Zu is a stone fox.'

Ziggy eventually found Kaori's dream and watched. It was pretty much everything he thought it would be. Terrifying for the young girl as a shadowy monster she had no power to resist stood over her and struck her down, only for another young girl bathed in white light to appear before her and embrace the dying Kaori.

It was basically Kaori's origin story played on repeat, except the monster got bigger and scarier every time the dream repeated. Kaori's dream was just her mind reinforcing her fears.

Ziggy isn't planning on making a habit of Dreamwalking into peoples' dreams, but he wanted to ensure he knew how to use the ability. This situation was just an excellent opportunity to get the practice in while confirming his thoughts.

He looks at the depressed girl on the bed and sighs.

"You're focusing on the wrong part," he says.

Kaori doesn't move, but her brow twitches a bit.

"You're focused on the 'dying is scary' part," he says. "You should be focussing on the love and rebirth part. Your friend wanted you to live. She loved you so much that she wanted you to live and to be with you forever."

"But she died," Kaori mumbles. "She died to save me. I don-I don't want to let her down. I don't want to die again."

"Oh, sweetie, I knew a guy who died falling backward in his chair," Ziggy says. "You can't honor your friend by hiding from life. So, the way I see it, you have a few choices. You can continue hiding away and waste the gift your friend gave you, you can return to your village and be a pretty bird in a gilded cage, or you can grow strong beside your friends and your team and help protect people from the monsters of the world and heal others, as your friend did for you."

Kaori is quiet, her eyes shifting as she thinks about what Ziggy said.

"Just something to think about. You don't have to decide now," he says, standing up. He walks over to the door and looks back. "You have friends still, Kaori. You have a team. Lean on us, and in the future, when you're ready, we'll lean on you, too."

Kaori flinches when the door clicks shut. Shizuku climbs behind her and wraps her arm around her friend. Kaori's breath hitches and shudders as her eyes become red and watery. Shizuku squeezes her tighter.

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"Alright, everyone, that was a good workout," Ziggy says to the small crowd of newly-minted exercise enthusiasts in the courtyard. Most of them were panting and doubled over. "Everyone remember to hydrate. We don't want to cramp up. Lili, if you're up for it, I am going on another dive in the Dungeon today."

Lili is flat on her back but holds a small hand in the air with a thumb up.

"Alright. Anyone else want to join us? We'll probably keep it a little low. We might hit floor five at most. Most of us are still getting used to fighting in the Dungeon; no need to push ourselves too hard."

"I'm- huff- in," a busty short stack with bright orange hair says. "Come on Ren,-huff- we got this."

A haggard-looking young man, sporting an emo black hairstyle with a streak of pink, nods as he leans against a wall with his hands on his knees.

A bunny girl with short sandy hair and deep blue eyes Ziggy has yet to meet formally waves a hand in his general direction while catching her breath. He looks over, and she points back and forth between herself and another girl standing next to her, this one perhaps a half-elf with silver hair and golden eyes.

"W-we'd also-huff-like to tag along," she says, still huffing a little. "It'll give us a chance... to get to know the other teams better."

"Sounds great," Ziggy says with a smile. "Anyone else?"

"We'll go, too!" Shea shouts, waving, but is cut off by Yue.

"No, we have things to do today," she says, and Shea's ears droop.

"Oh, should I postpone the Dungeon dive?" Ziggy asks.

Yue shakes her head. "It's girl stuff. Though, we do want to do a team run tomorrow."

"Alright, I'll be looking forward to it," he says. "Anyone else?"

"Since Nora and Ren are going, I think it would be good if Jaune and I went as well," a sexy redhead with verdant green eyes says.

"Alright," Ziggy says, smiling. "That brings us to eight. More than that, and we'll have to split the group."

Honestly, this was more than Ziggy had anticipated. He figured three or four plus Lili would be about the top end. Now though, he doesn't think the fifth floor wouldn't be far enough. Maybe it was okay to push down a little further.

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"There is a small group of War Shadows about twenty meters down the passageway to the right," the petite bunny girl named Horn says in a quiet voice. "Nothing is coming up within my range down the other two corridors."

"Alright, let's take 'em out," Ziggy says, nodding. "Same as before, Jaune and Pyrrha, you're on point. Edelgard, you got the reach; back them up. Nora and Ren are on the left, and Zwei and Horn are on the right. Don't let them flank us. Lili and I will hang back here, cover our asses, and pick off stragglers. Alright, let's go."

It wasn't even a fight. The first two War Shadows bounced off Jaune and Pyrrha's shields and got skewered by Edelgard's spear. Zwei mauled one that tried to slip around the side, and Ziggy put an arrow through the eye of the one at the back. Thirty seconds and the 'fight' was over.

This was how the entire run had gone. The lower levels were zero challenge for a party like this. If something spawned at the back or, for some reason, ran up from behind, Ziggy would put it down, or if there were several, Nora or Zwei would fall back to help him put a hurt on the hapless monsters.

The real MVP, though, is Horn. She has an interesting ability called Mapping. It allows her to gain a third-person view of her surroundings within a specific range showing everything from corridors, hidden rooms, and the general layout to monsters and adventurers, even hidden ones.

Ziggy wasn't sure if the ability could see through magical invisibility and illusions. Still, it did see through Lie Ren's Tranquility skill, which reduced his presence as well as the presence of those around him. This was also an excellent ability since it allowed the group to get closer to monsters without them noticing until it was too late.

"The entrance to the next floor is just up ahead," Horn says.

"What does everyone think?" Ziggy says. "Do we have one more in us for today? The next one is seven; we start getting ants and poisonous Purple Moths."

"If you can take out the moths before they get near us, we shouldn't have any trouble," Pyrrha says.

"Yeah, I'm not interested in getting poisoned, but I think we can handle some bugs," Jaune, the other shield fighter and defacto leader of subteam JNPR, says. Originally, Jaune wasn't thrilled to be dragged along since he felt a bit intimidated by Ziggy, but strangely, Jaune found himself enjoying Ziggy's company more than he expected.

For Ziggy's part, he felt like Jaune was the little brother he never had, which surprises the hell out of him since he was never a big fan of Jaune in the RWBY series. Lie Ren is obviously Nora's gay best friend and an all-around nice but emo kind of guy. Nora is a plucky powderkeg of joyful jubilance that is nearly intoxicating and could easily be exhausting. Pyrrha is the consummate professional, smooth and efficient. She might not have the same fame she did in the RWBY series to pressure her, but she did seem the type to push herself to be the best.

The other two, Horn and Edelgard, were from a different series. Ziggy thought Horn was just a kid when she joined the exercise program in the morning, but as it turns out, she's just short, like Hestia short. Maybe even shorter without the ears, more like a dwarf bunny girl. Like elves, there is more than a single type of Hume Bunny, apparently, and Horn comes from a more diminutive subspecies. And speaking of elves...

Edelgard is a bit of an enigma for Ziggy. In the series, she was a Fallen, while here, she seems to be a half-elf, specifically, a half-dark-elf. She is quiet and seems to be attached to Horn at the hip. Ziggy wondered if they might be lovers, but it doesn't quite track with the body language they're exhibiting.

"Alright, if no one objects, we'll hit floor seven," Ziggy says, and the motion carries. "Keep an eye out for a Blue Papilio when we get down there. I know they're rare, but I want to get one of their magic stones."

"Oh, those are the butterfly-like monsters that secrete a powder that has healing properties," Pyrrha says excitedly. "If you can turn one of those into a summons, it would be like having a group healer in the party."

"Exactly," Ziggy says with a nod. "I'll take a Purple Moth as well, but now that I'm familiar with these floors, I'll be coming here until I get a Blue Papilio. It's too useful not to."

"As much as I hate grinding for drops," he mutters.