E-Class Breakthrough

She almost certainly had zero oral experience.

Last time had been her first time having sex, so where else would she have learned to give head?

So I warned her not to use her teeth, then forced her hips down and shoved myself into her throat.

"Hhk... bbuup... mmmph... haah... haah... cough, cough..."

Just as expected...

Being her first time, she struggled hard.

Damn it.

The climax that had been right on the edge vanished somewhere along the way.

I had no choice but to spin back around and push into her pussy instead.

Next time, I'd have to start by teaching her how to suck properly.

I resumed sex in the position that had felt best among the ones we'd tested earlier.

Sweat poured down my whole body in an instant.

Baek Hwayeon was already soaked through, clinging to me.

This was the exact same position that had raised Kim Isol's mana.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

We sat on the bed, arms locked tight around each other.

Skin pressed to skin, sweat streaming down between us.

It was hot.

But I couldn't bring myself to stop tasting this pleasure.

In this position it was hard to thrust deep or snap my hips fast, but by lifting and lowering Baek Hwayeon's body however I liked, the lost climax came flooding back.

"I'm going to strengthen your mana now."

I hadn't forgotten the one thing I absolutely had to do today.

Last time I hadn't been able to hold back and came first. This time I planned to push her mana higher at the exact moment of climax.

Kim Isol and Senior An Sora had both looked like the pleasure of breaking past their mana limits was no joke.

Go ahead and feel it!

The pleasure of breaking your limits while having sex.

"Hhk... my mana..."

Before turning her mana off, I had already dropped it all the way to F-1.

All that remained was to raise it again, step by step.

She wouldn't piss herself like Kim Isol, right?

Senior An had been fine, so there was probably nothing to worry about.

I gripped both of Baek Hwayeon's ass cheeks, lifting and dropping her so that my cock massaged the inside of her pussy.

At the same time I raised her mana one rank at a time.

Her mana, which I had previously left at F-5, shot up to F-10 in the span of a few good thrusts.

In the blink of an eye it had become several times stronger, so the rush she felt had to be insane.

"Hnnngh... hwaaang!"

Just as I expected.

Every stimulus she felt seemed to travel straight into her vaginal muscles, clamping down hard around me.

But this wasn't the end.

Now it was time to break the limit.

I quickly laid her down on the bed and snapped my hips.

Faster, even faster. And harder.

I could feel the inside of her pussy trembling all the way up through my groin.

And then—

"Ugh... I-I'm coming!"

"Hnn... hwaaaaah—!"

Pssshhk—!

I rubbed the clit I had left untouched until now and poured a full load deep inside her.

At the same moment I spent one point and pushed her mana into E-class.

An overwhelming wave of pleasure must have been swirling through her; Baek Hwayeon's whole body jerked and twitched over and over.

Tears were a given, and she was even drooling in a way completely unlike her usual self.

Looking down at her body gleaming with sweat, I finally eased myself out of her.

"Hah... hah..."

"Hwaah... hwaah..."

I brought over a towel and gently tossed it onto Baek Hwayeon's body.

Then I firmly told her to make sure she bought and took the morning-after pill.

If she got pregnant out of nowhere, every hope she had of earning money would shatter into pieces.

She nodded again and again as she wiped herself down.

After cleaning off the cum she went straight into the shower.

Looks like getting her mana back left her with energy to spare.

"Thank you..."

I heard something just before the sound of the shower started.

Her voice was so soft I couldn't make out a single word of what she said.

Baek Hwayeon's mana was now E-1.

Same as Kim Isol.

Jang Yong was E-2.

And only Lee Donggeul was still stuck at F-10.

I immediately messaged Lee Donggeul and confirmed she wasn't asleep yet.

I told her I would be coming to her room in a little while.

It wasn't a question. It was a declaration.

Because tonight I planned to raise her mana all the way to E-10 as well.

We would be facing some pretty tough bastards tomorrow, after all.

We needed to go in with a generous stock of heals prepared.

I waited until Baek Hwayeon finished her shower and came out, sent her back to her own room, then washed myself and threw on some clothes.

Then I headed for Lee Donggeul's room.

My room already reeked of Baek Hwayeon's scent, so calling her over felt wrong.

The sheets were soaked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with sweat and love juices, too...

Stamina fully topped off. Now it was Round Two with Lee Donggeul.

We entered the dungeon.

Day two of the Pink Land expedition had just begun.

"As we discussed earlier, today we'll be hunting the males."

"Hyung-nim. The males don't have those tendrils, right? How are we supposed to—"

"Baek Hwayeon."

I cut Jang Yong off and called her name.

The reason I had prioritized strengthening her last night was clear.

Today we were hunting males, not females.

Baek Hwayeon stepped forward.

She immediately drew her bowstring and took aim at a male with not a single tendril on its face.

Whiiiiish—!

A powerful vortex of mana swirled around the hand gripping the bow, and light erupted from it.

A brilliant flare of mana that had never once appeared before—no, that her previous mana level could never have produced.

It was a phenomenon that only showed itself once the class of her mana had risen.

Twang—!

The moment she released the string, a fierce crack of air-splitting force rang out.

The arrow left her fingers and seemed to break the sound barrier; the air itself shuddered.

The loosed shaft shot straight up into the sky and punched clean through the body of the targeted Sky Ray before vanishing into even higher altitudes.

—BOOM!

The massive Sky Ray crashed to the ground.

Its formal name was the Tail-Stinger Sky Ray.

It had only recently been identified as the male of the Long-bearded Sky Ray; at first people had treated them as entirely different species.

Compared to the ones we had taken yesterday, these were far larger and a different color entirely.

Even their blood was blue.

"Whoa... I couldn't tell while they were floating up there, but they're huge. No—more importantly, Hyung-nim. What happened to Baek Hwayeon? She's on a completely different level from yesterday..."

"Baek Hwayeon is overcoming her trauma well. And she's going to grow even stronger from here."

Jang Yong looked back and forth between me and Baek Hwayeon with a dumb expression, then fixed his gaze on me.

He wore the face of someone who desperately wanted to say something.

What, you want to get stronger too?

Then bring your big sister over here, you punk.

Anyway, this ray measured a full ten meters from end to end.

That was mostly because of the long tail; the body itself was only about one and a half times the size of the Long-bearded Rays we had hunted yesterday.

And just like the name suggested, a long stinger jutted from the underside of the tail.

That stinger was the real prize.

It was the entire goal of today's expedition and our main piece of loot.

"Kim Isol, would you use your sword to pull this stinger free? They're insanely expensive. The tendrils don't even compare. If you cut open the belly here and here, the stinger should come out."

"What the hell... so today I'm stuck doing this crap again? And Baek Hwayeon is—"

"You don't want to? Sounds like Kim Isol has no interest in growing stronger tonight either?"

"...Who said I don't want to? Fine, I'll do it!"

Kim Isol already understood.

That I had used my hands to strengthen Baek Hwayeon.

No—everyone had probably figured it out by now.

There was no other way to explain how she had suddenly gotten this strong.

Sorry, but in this dungeon the ranged DPS is the most important role.

Even if it pissed her off to be pushed back, I hoped she would just grit her teeth and wait.

"Whoa... it's so long and hard. And pitch black."

Lee Donggeul stared in amazement at the long stinger Kim Isol had just pulled free.

No wonder—it was a full meter and a half long and ridiculously solid.

That hardness in particular was no joke.

It put ordinary steel to shame.

An Awoken who specialized in spears could even use one as a throwing spear without any processing at all.

Because the stinger itself was a monster byproduct, it was already fairly usable even without a mana coating.

Add a mana coating and it would become a respectable weapon.

Even sold raw, each one would fetch at least several million won.

"But Hyung-nim. So today Baek Hwayeon is hunting alone?"

"Even with the help I gave her, there's a limit to how much Baek Hwayeon can hunt by herself. Mana isn't infinite."

"Then I should—"

"Yes. That's why we rented extra bows."

Today we had rented three full bow sets.

After renting Jang Yong's sword and shield and Kim Isol's longsword, we had gone back for bows and arrows as well.

Normally it wasn't easy to rent gear like this just for an E-rank dungeon, but the company, still stunned by the massive haul of ray tendrils from yesterday, had cheerfully agreed.

From their perspective the equipment was already covered by loss insurance, so they had nothing to worry about—and they probably wanted to score some points with our promising team.

There was one concern, though.

We had borrowed them, sure, but I had no idea what Jang Yong and Kim Isol's archery skills were actually like.

Well, Jang Yong claimed he could handle every ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weapon, so I could live with that. Kim Isol was the problem.

I had raised her mana quite a bit, but could she actually use a bow?

Surely this wasn't her first time handling one?

"I'll test Kim Isol and Jang Yong's archery. If it's completely hopeless, I'll reassign them to stinger extraction."

"Hmph."

"Hyung-nim, I'm confident! I don't have a skill for it, so I won't be at Baek Hwayeon's level, but still."

Even if the weapon changed, the way you circulated mana didn't differ much, so as long as an Awoken had decent motor skills there was no real need to be picky about weapons.

The only thing that changed was efficiency depending on whether they had a relevant skill.

I watched the two of them settle into stance and take aim at the male rays.

Baek Hwayeon held a ready position behind them just in case they failed.

In case their attacks only provoked the monsters without dealing any real damage.

—Ping!

—Ping!

There was no air-splitting crack like Baek Hwayeon's shots.

But both of them loosed their arrows cleanly.

I waited to see how the accuracy would turn out—and what do you know?

Both of them hit their targets dead-on.

Huh. They can actually shoot?

Still not enough to praise them for, though.

"Baek Hwayeon!"

"Yes."

Their attacks had landed, but neither was enough to one-shot a male ray.

They hadn't even managed to pierce through—about the same level Baek Hwayeon had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shown yesterday against the females.

Baek Hwayeon finished off the two still-living rays gliding toward us with two arrows.

The gap in skill was unmistakable.

"Well done."

The moment I praised only Baek Hwayeon, Kim Isol shot me a glare.

Jang Yong's expression turned sulky too.

Hey, you two are melee DPS.

Be jealous of the right things, will you?

But her pride must have been wounded, because Kim Isol immediately demanded another try.

Well, if she concentrated more mana into the shot it shouldn't be impossible, so I set the stage for her.

Then suddenly a yellow light began to wrap around Kim Isol's entire body.

Ah. She was trying to use a skill.

Right—with her skill...

I watched Kim Isol carefully as she poured every ounce of focus into the shot.

The new skill she had gained when her mana rose to E-class was Concentration.

I wonder...

Shuuuuu—

What the hell?

That's impossible!

Just like with Baek Hwayeon, mana began to swirl at the tip of the arrow she was holding.

Then she loosed it!

—THWOOM!

The arrow tore through the air with a noise even more violent than Baek Hwayeon's and punched straight through its target.

The massive Tail-Stinger Ray plummeted to the ground, already dead.

This time even I was shocked.

I had assumed it was just a skill that improved focus. Looks like I had completely misjudged it.

Was it the kind of skill that concentrated even more mana into a weapon?

I wasn't the only one stunned.

Jang Yong, who had attacked alongside her, looked just as shocked.

Baek Hwayeon, who had thought archery was hers alone, also seemed thoroughly rattled.

Kim Isol, on the other hand, stared at me with a triumphant expression.

"Well?"

A smug look that said even I wouldn't be able to withhold praise this time.

Seeing that face made the compliment I had been about to give dry up and disappear.

What should I even say to her...

"How many more times can you fire an attack like that?"

"What?"

"Didn't you just waste a ton of mana?"

"...Don't be ridiculous! I controlled it properly!"

"Is that so? Well, fine. Then while Jang Yong recovers the stingers, Baek Hwayeon and Kim Isol will handle the hunting. Keep track of your teammates' positions and don't stray too far from the entrance. I'll be watching to see who bags more rays."

When I still refused to praise her to the end, Kim Isol stomped off, fuming.

She looked determined not to lose the contest no matter what.

Baek Hwayeon also wore a dejected expression, as if she didn't want to lose to Kim Isol either.

Lee Donggeul and I just stood there blankly watching the two of them.

"Team Leader-nim... when do I get to heal?"

"Donggeul. It's better if you never need to use a heal at all."

"Yeees..."

And so our second day of dungeon expedition began in this warm and fuzzy(?) atmosphere.

Without the slightest inkling that a tremendous crisis was about to descend on us.

I had clearly let my guard down.

The first reason was that we had hunted nearly a thousand Long-bearded Rays yesterday.

The second was that I had put far too much blind faith in the new ability I had gained by reaching 100% Synchronization Rate.

Well... thanks to that ability we somehow managed to survive a crisis that nearly killed us, but still...