Ero-Game: Power and Sword

When I returned from the library with The Theoretical Fundamentals of Energy Magic (3rd Edition), I saw Garth eating a full course meal. There were still hours to go before lunch. Was he always this big of an eater? I never had meals with him back at the mansion. So, maybe he was.
He swallowed his food when he saw me walking up. He picked up the space expansion bag and put it on the table. “I bought the food like you wanted, master.”
“Good job.”
“I also bought some camping gear since you gave me so much extra money.”
“Didn’t we already have camping gear?”
“We didn’t have lite tripod stools or mummy sleeping bags.”
“I guess the stools are fine, but didn’t we have sleeping bags?”
“Not mummy sleeping bags.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The boy on the cover looked much cozier.”
“Right, okay. Finish up, I already got us a carriage. It’s waiting for us outside.”
“You got us a carriage?”
“Yeah, I went to get a rickshaw, but since I said we were going to Pinksdu, they suggested a carriage.”
“We’re going to Pinksdu.”
“Didn’t I tell you?” Pinksdu’s near the edge of the capital. It was an hour by horse-drawn carriage.
“No.” He shook his head. “I thought we’d go to Maglo.” Maglo was much closer.
“I want pink monster cores.” One of the things on the top of my to-do list was making an item that increases the wearer’s charm. Charm increases the attraction of the opposite sex towards you. It’s one way to get men without having to do favors. Some people have high resistance to charm, but for the most part, it worked. Also, I wanted to make enough to auction some because I’m sure it’ll sell well. And pink cores were one of the ingredients I needed to make it.
“What about yellow cores?”
“If I wanted yellow cores, we’d go to Maglo, wouldn’t we?” I was getting tired of answering his questions.
“But don’t yellow cores sell better? Aren’t we going to sell any of it?  Don’t we need to sell some as proof?” It was true; that the whole reason for the guild quest was to collect cores for them. So we’d have to sell some to the adventurer’s guild if we wanted to show proof of  completion.
“Then we’ll just have to collect a lot, won’t we?” Do I have to explain everything?
“Okay.”
“Thank you.” For not asking any more questions. “Come on, she’s waiting outside.”
“Alright, alright.” He stuffed his face as quickly as possible and started coughing. “Cough*. Cough*. Cough*.”
“Okay, don’t hurt yourself.” I smiled wryly.

***

As we drove to the dungeon. I constantly repeated scenarios in my head of monster combat, preparing myself for the dungeon. I’ve never been in actual combat, but I’ve played this game enough to know what to do in every scenario. Though I haven’t played the game in years, obviously. But I’ve prepared in every way possible; level 10 was more than enough  for 3 floors in Pinksdu. Despite the receptionist’s warnings, a group of  5 level-5s could conquer this dungeon.

The carriage driver dropped us off near the dungeon.
“We have a branch here in Pinkto.” The driver said, handing me a pamphlet with the map of the town. “The star you see here is our office.” The driver pointed out the red star on the map.
“Alright, thanks. When we want to return, we’ll use it.” I told her.
“Give me a good review when you go there? It’ll help me out.”
“Oh, sure.”
“Thanks.” She smiled. “Okay, then I’m leaving. Contact the branch if you need me again.” She said and whipped the horse forward.
“Alright, let’s go,” I told Garth, who was carrying all our luggage.

There were small-time merchants outside the dungeon, selling newbies all sorts of things. We ignored them and lined up with the people going in. The line wasn’t long, and it was our turn in a matter of seconds.
“Permit.” The guard said. I handed her our permits, she looked them over in a second and handed them back. “Okay, you can go in.”
So I walked in, and Garth followed behind me.

I  looked around at people with [look-a-look] for potential teammates. Many that looked promising used the dungeon’s teleportation function and teleported into the lower floors. Pinksdu had 21 floors, and there was a  teleportation gate every 3 floors. The other promising candidates I saw  already had teams. I could try joining another team, but I needed to be the leader if I wanted to move around as I wished. I can’t join a party that plans on staying in the capital for the next 4 years or something.
So I didn’t find anyone as we entered the dungeon.

The inside of the dungeon was lit well by light stones. Dungeons were naturally occurring things, but this dungeon’s been around for so long  that the floor was paved, the walls were smoothed, the ceilings had light, and the slopes were turned into stairs. The work of humans. I’m sure it’d make the realtors on Earth drool; of course, the  buyers would run away when they find out it regularly spawns monsters.

We saw a gray humanoid monster with black white-less eyes when we turned a corner. It charged towards us.

Just as I’d prepared mentally, I cast  my magic: [energy manipulation, lightning]. Energy manipulation helped me control my energy output. I couldn’t tell the exact Watt or anything,  but it helped me better control the lightning that shot out of my finger. A twisted thread of plasma connected between my finger and the ghoul’s shoulder. I expected it to fry and fall to the ground; instead, it exploded. Its blood had boiled and burst. [Shield of Andromeda] activated and protected me from the blackish blood that splattered everywhere. “What?” I was confused.
“Ah! God!” Garth screamed. I looked over and saw that he was covered in blood. He was trying to clean himself.
“Don’t worry, it’s not poisonous,” I told him.
“Why did you make it explode!?” He yelled.
“I wasn’t expecting it to explode. Maybe I put too much power into it. Maybe I shouldn’t use energy manipulation.” I said.
Anyway, he eventually calmed down, and we moved forward.
“Should I change into new clothes?” He asked.
“We’re in a dungeon, don’t worry about a little bit of blood on your clothes.”
“It’s not a little bit!”
He was right. There was a lot of blood smeared on his clothes. I shrugged.

Another  ghoul showed up. While thinking, I’ll get it right this time. I  activated my magic again. [lightning], a thicker thread of plasma shot out of my finger. The top half of the ghoul exploded! “That’s the default?” I couldn’t understand it; that was more powerful than the last time. I only realized how much mana it was sucking out after I’d activated it.
“Aaaaah!” There was a bit of a delay, but Garth was not happy.

“I’m sorry.” I apologized. I couldn’t let him think I was doing this on purpose. Thanks to the [Shield of Andromeda], I was perfectly clean and fine.
When I apologized, his anger faded, and he sighed. “Let me do it from now on, master. I’ve learned a few skills thanks to Sterling, so I think I can deal with these guys.”
“No, no, I have to get used to this. The only way to get used to it is through practice. You can stand behind me the next time, so you won’t get covered by the blood.”
We had to stare down for a second, but he caved. “Fine.”
“Good, now go get the core.” His frown deepened at my words. But he did as he was told.

We  continued forward. The third time’s the charm, after all. I used [energy  manipulation, lightning] and made sure to control my mana. Garth hid behind me, but I got it right this time. The ghoul was electrocuted the right amount and collapsed to the ground.
“Oh, it didn’t explode this time,” Garth said, coming out from behind me.
“Practice makes perfect.” I smiled. “Okay, now you can practice your skills.”

So we moved forward, killing ghouls that showed up. Garth sliced a few with his sword. I killed some with [energy manipulation, lightning]. So the day went by with us getting more familiar with our powers. Then around 8 pm, we started feeling tired.

“It’s almost 9. Shouldn’t we take a rest?” Garth said, panting after killing 5 ghouls in a row.
“Yeah, I suppose we should.” We’d crossed over to the 2nd floor around an hour ago. “At this pace, we should reach the first teleportation point tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” Garth agreed. “So, can we rest?”
“Yeah, make the camp. I’ll stand watch.” We’ll have to take turns during the night and keep watch.
“Okay.” He exhaled, exhausted.
We’d killed all the ghouls in the area, so it’d take some time before they respawned, so we should be safe. Garth was able to set up the camp without any issues. I sat down on the stool Garth had bought while he cooked us our dinner.
“What are you making?” I asked.
“Chicken soup.”
“Oh, I like chicken soup.”
“I know.”
With that conversation over, I rummaged through the space expansion bag and found: The Theoretical Fundamentals of Energy Magic (3rd Edition). I skipped the preface and jumped straight to the first chapter. I read through it and was reminded of some of the books I’d read in-game. A lot  of it was philosophical. There were a lot of illogical conclusions formed from a combination of ethics, religion, and energy. It was clear that the author’s faith played a significant role in these theories.  When I used [energy understanding], though I can’t explain it with words, it was like taking a glimpse of what Stephen Hawking would describe as the theory of everything. So I could understand why this author might make those connections. What I saw was almost like a mushroom trip. If I wasn’t from modern-day Earth, I’d never guess that the weird thing buzzing around was an electron or the strange  ghost-of-a-thing was a photon of light.
The book didn’t contain anything new from what I’ve already read in the game. At least not the first chapter. But since I picked it up, I planned on reading the whole thing. “You have no one else to blame but yourself,” I mumbled.
“What?” Garth asked.
“Nothing, just talking to myself.”
“Oh, okay.” He scooped out the soup into a bowl and handed it to me.
“Thanks.” Then he took out a spoon from his bag, wiped it with a cloth, and gave it to me. “Thanks,” I said again.
“Your welcome, master.” He said and poured himself a bowl.

As we  started eating our dinner, we heard slow dragging footsteps from where we’d come. We both looked and saw a dog girl dragging herself forward  while leaning against the wall. It took me a moment to realize she was a dog girl since only her floppy ears gave it away, and I was more focused on the trail of blood she was leaving. There were wounds on her  leg and shoulder. She saw us and limped towards us. Leather armor covered her from her shoulder down. A sword hung by her waist.
She dropped a small cloth pouch on the floor when she reached us. 3 pink cores rolled out. “Just give me some food.” She said, almost on the verge of collapse. I could tell from her eyes that she was taking a gamble. I could steal these and tell her to fuck off if I wanted to. She was in no condition to fight.
I picked up the 3 cores and told Garth: “Give her some soup.”
He poured out another bowl, put the spoon in the bowl, and handed it to her. When she got the food, she smiled at Garth, did a small bow, and said, “Thank you.” Then she sat down on the ground and hungrily ate the food.
As she ate, I got a closer look at her. Her face was recently punched,  and it looked like the left side of her abdomen was also injured. I also took a look at her level while I was at it. She was a martial artist with a level of 7. Level 7 was good enough for the first 3 floors. So how did a level 7 get so badly injured? While I was thinking about how to ask that question. I also noticed she had a fluffy tail. Was she  trying to hide it? No, I was just slow.
It turned out I didn’t need to ask because Garth asked, “How did you get hurt?”
She looked up at him and then at me. She quickly stuffed the remaining  soup in her mouth, swallowed, burped, and asked Garth for seconds: “More, please.” And as Garth was filling up the bowl again, she squinted at us. When the bowl was returned to her, she stopped squinting, then nodded her head, and said, “Okay, you guys seem like good humans, so I’ll tell you.” Then she paused for a moment before saying: “After I finish eating.”