TDH Vol. 1 pt. 33

Well, I probably wasn’t dreaming. I confirmed that much by going to sleep later in the day after parting ways with Zurie, and then getting free from Elanah.

“Getting free” from Elanah as in getting out of her grasp after the guards came to tell all of us it was time to go back to our cells. After Zurie left to do paperwork for us with the implication of a threesome in our future, me and Elanah went to relax in the lounge to watch others and just to do our own thing. That meant me sitting on her lap while she petted me for hours.

It was great… until it was time to return to our cells. That was when she held me so tightly that I felt like my spine was going to snap.

Fortunately, I survived with my spine intact and got a full night’s worth of sleep.

My back still hurt in the morning, though.

More importantly, when it came time for the dungeon, it was Peter who came for in the morning instead of Stefan. “Morning! Rest well?” he asked me as he opened my cell.

I yawned and nodded.

“That’s good. Also, congrats! Looks like you got sponsored. You and your girlfriend,” he said with a teasing tone, “are going into the dungeon together today. We’ll go grab her next.”

Following a sleepy nod from me, we went over to Elanah’s cell to grab her. Naturally, she was excited after Peter explained the situation.

“She actually sponsored us?! I—I hoped she would, but I wasn’t sure if I could really believe that something so perfect would happen!” Elanah shouted as tears formed at the corners of her eyes.

“Hey, I get that you’re excited, but please try to keep your voice down. The others are still trying to rest,” Peter said.

Not anymore they’re not.

As for Elanah, she rolled her eyes before stepping out of the cell to pick me up and hug me. “Good morning, my fated! My Woofen. Ehehe…”

“You can hold him as much as you want once you’re in the dungeon, but I need you two to be on your best behavior until then, alright?” Peter asked.

“Hmph. Fine.” Elanah set me down on the ground. I was surprised that she didn’t seem to totally hate Peter like she did with basically every other man. Maybe it was because she knew he was already interested in somebody else. Plus he was a pretty nice guy to everybody.

Whatever it was, Peter walked us out to the area in front of the dungeon’s entrance where everybody in the stands could see us.

We must have been chosen to go in extra early for the day considering that the sun was in the perfect, annoying spot to shine in our eyes, and the stands were still pretty empty.

I liked the mornings. They were way quieter. Only problem was the sun trying to make us blind.

But no matter what time of day it was, I still had to listen to the annoying voice of the bastard announcer.

“Could you believe what I’m about to tell all of you?!” the Grand Announcer said, his voice booming through the stands. “The two problem children have been sponsored! Not only that, but by the same lady! Maybe all that ‘fate’ garbage the girl always rambles about is real after all? Who knows!”

Elanah clenched her fists and looked like she was about to rage at the announcer. But she was smart enough not to.

“A cultist and a murderer! It’s no wonder that they’ve become a little thing lately. But seriously! Talk about some strange tastes. I mean, look at him down there. How does that even work? He’s probably so small that she can’t even feel him, if you know what I’m saying!”

The audience laughed, once again, despite how unfunny the announcer was.

Choke on his boots some more, you bastards.

“Ah… anyways, I could be here all morning if I keep it up. These two degenerates are brought to you by Zurie Sânge! There’s uh, no sponsored message to come with them, so I’m not sure what the point of sponsoring them is, but hey! Sponsors can be quite the eccentric folk sometimes. After all, somebody has to have a few screws loose to sponsor these two!”

Do sponsors always get mocked like this? Aren’t they paying them?

“Alright! Eighty-Three and Fifty-Seven, get in there! Try to actually advance through the dungeon, alright? Nobody wants to watch whatever it is that you two do together.”

Fifty-Seven? Elanah’s been here even longer than Fane then.

The entrance to the dungeon opened up, allowing us entry which we wasted no time in taking advantage of. Neither of us wanted to hear the announcer’s voice go on for any longer than we had to.

Given Elanah’s obsessive personality, I could only imagine how infuriated she was listening to everything that the announcer said, but she kept herself together and behaved as we were forced to. After all, she had a collar around her neck just like I did. Either one of us could be executed at any time.

I distracted myself from that by turning my focus to what really mattered in the moment: the dungeon.

It was the first time I ever entered the dungeon with somebody, and I had no idea what to expect. I knew the dungeon was going to be harder for us due to being together, and I had a general idea for how much more difficult it would be, but I figured the true difficulty increase was something I needed to experience for myself before making any judgements.

So, we descended the first stairs of the dungeon, and I mentally prepared myself for the challenges ahead.

Well, this is easy.

We might not have had any gear to start in the dungeon with, but that didn’t matter too much when Elanah was able to perform void magic.

Two rats charged at us.

Elanah shot a spike of void magic straight into the skull of each rat. The spikes collapsed about halfway through their heads, sucking everything immediately around them into nothingness.

“How was that? Pretty nice, right?!” Elanah asked, looking at me with a bright, innocent smile as if she didn’t just annihilate the heads of two beasts.

I didn’t know how to feel about somebody being able to look so happy and excited after killing, but I was still happy that I had her there with me. So, I nodded. I was also a bit relieved that her being excited over showing off to me took away all that frustration she felt earlier.

“Ehehe, I’ll do my best for you! My magic might not be that effective on the lower floors, but all these beasts up here are easy!”

As great as that was, though, it came with a potential problem of sorts. Her being able to so effortlessly kill all of our enemies would make her the one doing all of the work, and that meant I’d be developing my own abilities less. I wouldn’t get any stronger if she did everything and then, upon reaching the floors she couldn’t handle on her own, we’d be screwed.

How do I let her know that she needs to let me fight, too? Wait, I think I might know.

The next time we found an enemy, I jumped in front of her and barked at her before she could do anything.

“Woofen? Is something wrong?” Elanah asked.

Rather than try to respond, I turned my attention to the goblos approaching us. One had a spear and the other had a dagger and shield.

I wanted to prove that I was capable, too. I might not have been as strong nor as experienced as Elanah, but I still wanted to prove myself.

And I wanted a chance to test out my new fangs seeing as how I exploded myself before testing them out the last time I was in the dungeon.

First was the goblo with the spear. All I had to do was get past the tip of its spear and then I’d be safe. There was a chance the other goblo might try something, but I doubted it. Its dagger was too short to reach without getting in the spear goblo’s space and messing up the both of them.

I also noticed something.

I feel… faster than before.

It was hard to notice considering how artificially enhanced my speed was the last time in the dungeon, but I was faster. Seriously faster. That would make my strategy of getting in quick and going for killing blows even more effective than it was before, and I proved that with the first goblo as I dodged its spear with more ease than ever before.

Now, I might have still been too small to jump up and reach his neck from the floor, but it was close enough to the wall for me to jump onto that and then jump to its neck.

I opened my mouth as wide as I could and sunk my fangs into the goblo’s neck. The difference from before was immediately obvious as they sunk deeper and faster into its flesh.

But I made a mistake.

I underestimated the second goblo in my excitement to try out my new fangs. While I tore and shook at the first goblo’s neck, the second thrust its dagger toward me.

But a spike of black intercepted the hand wielding the dagger, erasing it from known existence before collapsing and bringing part of the goblo’s arm and more of the dagger with it.

I’ll give you extra licks for that later, Elanah.

Using the goblo I was already on as a board to jump off of, I launched myself at the second goblo’s neck and tore it to shreds.

One after the other fell to the ground with blood seeping from their necks.

As for me, I jumped off of the second goblo as it fell and did a little backflip in the air before landing just to be a bit extra showy.

But that was for the audience. I didn’t actually feel like being showy or anything considering that I messed up and would have gotten myself killed without Elanah being there. Evolving only to die on the first floor in my first fight? If that happened, I doubted my cuteness would be able to keep me on the audience’s good side.

Being cute would only take me so far.

As for Elanah, I needed to thank her for saving me. She was already on her way up to me, though, and crouched once she reached me to pet my head. “You’re so cool, Woofen! Jumping off the wall like that, then jumping from one to the other—I’ve never seen anybody else do something like that! My fated is amazing!”

He-hey now, I’m the one who should be calling you amazing for saving me. There was nothing amazing about lowering my guard like I did.

Elanah then picked me up and held me in front of the observation orb for everybody to see. “Isn’t he the best?! Woofen is the cutest, coolest, handsomest, most incredible and amazing person ever! Anybody who can’t see that has no idea what it means to have good taste and would probably mistake rotting garbage for a strawberry pie.”

A… a strawberry pie? That’s… specific.

“And Woofen is even better than strawberry pie!”

She has a thing for strawberry pie or something, doesn’t she?

“Ehehe… especially when it comes to taste.” Elanah held me closer to her face, nuzzling the side of it up against mine. “Isn’t that right, Woofen? You taste so good… and, you know, I’ve never heard any rules against spending some more time bonding our bodies together in the dungeon…”

Her hand slipped up between my lower legs.

Not now, woman! My parents might be watching! How am I going to explain it to them if you get me hard in front of them? In front of everybody?!

“Wait,” Elanah said as she stopped moving her hand, thankfully. “I’m sorry, Woofen, but we can’t do anything. You’re the only man allowed to see my body.”

Thank you.

“Then again… they don’t need to see my body for me to use my mouth.”

Damn it!

“Oh, but… then all the men watching might see your new size and get jealous, and then vote you off out of jealousy.”

I want to be upset you’re bringing this up in front of somebody. But at the same time, there’s something satisfying about having a woman praise my tool and implying all other men would be jealous in front of an audience. That’s kind of nice. Yeah. That’s seriously nice. If anything… no! My parents might still be watching!

I was dangerously close to becoming some sort of exhibitionist. It was just that being shown off in front of thousands of men sounded pretty satisfying. All those men would look at me and think, “How is it fair that somebody that tiny is bigger than me?!”

And then there were all the women who would see and think, “How is somebody so tiny bigger than my husband? I wonder if he would let me have a taste if I let sit on my lap.”

Yeah. That’s exactly how it’d go.

Unfortunately, the level of awkward I would feel from being shown off like that potentially in front of my parents was enough to make me not do it. So, instead, I turned my head to give Elanah’s cheek a quick lick before squirming out from her grasp and falling.

That was for saving me. I’ll give you more later.

“W-Woofen… kissing me in front of everybody like that… you must really want to show off our love. If—if that’s what you want, then… maybe we should do it after all,” Elanah said. The growing arousal in her voice was obvious. If she ended up going all out against me, there was no way that I would be able to resist.

I only had one option.

And that option was to run.

“Wai-wait! Woofen!” Elanah shouted, chasing behind me after picking up the shield and spear from the goblos.

I felt a little bit bad just leaving her behind like that, but I knew she’d be able to catch up. Well, I expected her to. Instead, she stopped and called out to me.

“Hang on!”

When I looked back again, I saw her crouched down near what looked like… basically, a pile of dirt. A small pile of dirt. I saw them around here and there but never thought much of them and completely phased them out of my attention after that. They were incredibly easy to miss when not paying attention.

I discovered there was more to the dirt when she dug through it for all of a few seconds, though. All she had to do was push it away and that revealed a small clump of gems which she picked up and put in her pocket. “Geez… we’re going to miss gems if you go too fast. A-and why’d you run away anyways? Did I do something to upset you?”

It’s not that you upset me, but… we were probably going to do something dangerous that I’d regret if I didn’t. I didn’t want her to be upset, so I shook my head.

“Are you sure?”

I nodded.

“Well, if you say so, I’ll believe you! You’re my fated, and I know my fated would never lie to me!”

You’re too pure. But at the same time, you’re the exact opposite of pure. You’ve proven that with every inch of your body at this point.

That aside, it was good to have somebody who could actually carry gems around. That was probably one of the biggest flaws of my new body in regard to the dungeon. Gems seemed pretty important, and I was never able to carry any with me due to the fact that I’d only be able to carry them in my mouth. And that just wasn’t a good idea.

So, with Elanah calmed down and a few gems to our dungeon attempt, we ventured deeper into the dungeon.

Considering how easy the first floor was, I doubted that we’d have any difficulty with the next few floors. I was already able to reliably clear them on my own. Even with the added difficulty from there being two of us, I was confident we wouldn’t have any problems.

The problem would be the boss. Assuming that the boss was going to be stronger due to knowing how we fought and because we’d be together, Cheese could end up being a serious issue for us.

We just had to hope… unfortunately, for a trip to the dungeon master’s room for some upgrades. The more upgrades we could get, the better for us. Even if only one of us would actually get anything from it.

Though, it wasn’t like we were completely without gear already. Elanah picked up that spear and shield, not that she needed to use them at all, so we had those to give us a small boost.

That was another flaw of my body. If I was a Chosen still, I could easily just pick up whatever I found in the dungeon to help me out. But given that I could basically only hold things with my mouth, that made it impossible to hold more than one thing at a time, and even that was awkward.

It would probably be best for me to take any boosts, if we even get the option to, since Elanah has her magic and can use whatever we find off the beasts. Then we can—

We were just about to descend to the third floor when Elanah stopped to whine. “Woofen… this isn’t fair. I have to watch you in front of me all the time.”

Does she want to be in the lead or something?

“It’s impossible to not want to do it and cuddle afterwards when I have to look at you all the time… hey, can we take a break? I won’t be able to hold back for much longer if we don’t. Even if it’s just to pet you! I just—I need to touch you, Woofen… you’re my addiction.”

Oh. Yeah, I should have expected that. Seriously should have expected that.