Chapter 16
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Mentoring Program (2)
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Bang! Bang! Bang!!
After coming back from the Explorer Guild and having dinner with Sia at the inn, we'd each retreated to our rooms to rest. Just as bedtime rolled around, Sia had come looking for me.
She'd whined that no bad blood was coming out during her massage and begged for help, so I'd kindly shown her hands-on how to do it again, squeezing out all that bad blood until she passed out right away. Then I held her close, kneading her breasts as we slept—until the pounding on the door woke me at the crack of dawn.
"Ugh... what the hell is this so early..."
Creeeak—
"Cain!!"
"Huh? Hawk, when did you get here?"
"That's not important right now!"
I glared at the door to see who it was, and there stood old man Hawk—short and stocky, with a bushy dwarf beard straight out of a textbook—calling my name in a frantic voice.
"No, wait, so..."
"Come on!! Let's go, Cain, yeah?"
Looking closer, his face was swollen like he'd been punched by someone, and his signature armed axe was nowhere in sight.
"What the hell happened..."
"Claude's been nabbed too—hurry!"
"No fucking way, what did you two idiots do..."
Right then, Mion's strange expression from when we'd talked about the temp party flashed in my mind.
"Don't tell me those two level 1s were both women?"
"Well..."
"Fuck...! I told you, old man. Take Claude to the pleasure houses all you want, but keep him away from those gold-digging snakes."
"You did..."
"Haa... fine, let's go."
Thankfully, Sia hadn't woken up, so I quietly grabbed my coin pouch and dagger, changed clothes, and slipped out of the inn with Hawk.
"This the place?"
"Y-yeah."
"Seriously... move it."
I grumbled as I followed Hawk through the dark alleys of the slums on the city's outskirts, the sun not even up yet.
"How'd you get hooked too? You've been at this for fifteen years."
"Ahem!"
The Labyrinth City was treated like its own independent nation under the pretext of managing the labyrinth to prevent monster floods, but security wasn't great.
The big shots running the city only cared about deep clears and keeping monsters from overflowing, plus making sure mana stones didn't leak out. They kept minimal public order but turned a blind eye to the underworld.
The worst offenders were the so-called "party breakers"—gold-digging women who infiltrated parties, broke them up, demanded compensation or cash, or pulled shady ops...
"What'd you say?"
"The new faces we saw a few days ago..."
"Un-fucking-believable."
When I'd gotten my Awakening blessing and ended up at the aid station, Claude and Hawk had spent all night running around with those pleasure house newbies, sucking and fucking. Apparently, those same girls had applied for a temp party.
Brothels here worked like freelancers—no absolute authority from pimps or bosses, just mutual aid and loose protection.
Women who could handle the bodies of high-level explorers with boosted stats? Not your average folk. Most were failed female explorers who'd entered the labyrinth but bailed on delving.
They'd gotten blessings that boosted sexual prowess, or useless ones for exploring, or quirks like constant horniness that made delving impossible. That's how they washed up here.
At least they had stats unlike unblessed, zero-level women, so they could take an explorer's pounding.
And they earned more than hookers in other kingdoms or empires, compromising with reality and calling it satisfaction.
The church aid station could remove quirks, but the first cleanse cost 1 gold, and repeats skyrocketed exponentially. Low-level women explorers often chose this life to avoid the cash burden.
"No, seriously, how'd you end up captured?"
"Hm... well..."
I clutched my forehead at Hawk's explanation.
After a long night of "breaking in" the new faces, the girls had clung to Claude, saying they were still level 1 and scared, asking if he'd take them into the labyrinth just once since it seemed okay.
Naive Claude bought it hook, line, and sinker—what kind of lunatic comes to Labyrinth City declaring "I'm gonna be a pro hooker!" gets blessed, and jumps straight to brothel work? Anyway, he roped in Hawk for a temp party match and dove in.
No wonder he'd panicked when I asked what happened that dawn he'd stumbled back.
Less than half a day in, the girls whined about being scared and wanting to go back. They built a hiding spot to dodge monsters, planned to sleep one night and bail—but the bitches spiked the food with aphrodisiacs and lit incense in the sleeping bags. They spent three straight days fucking in the labyrinth.
"So, you didn't notice they were brothel prospects being groomed? Fucked nonstop for three days and came out empty-handed on mana stones?"
"Sorry... no, I didn't expect them to pack aphrodisiacs and shit even for the labyrinth..."
"You had your fun pounding away, no stones collected, and now the girls have quirks too?"
"..."
Three days of nonstop fucking? Fine, whatever.
Even if Hawk had tanked for temp parties on layer 1 for a decade, he might not have met women explorers who came prepared with drugs.
The real issue: the girls developed quirks after their first labyrinth run and exiting the city.
Typical party breaker playbook: infiltrate to wipe the party out of grudge, or like this, fuck in the labyrinth and demand "mental damage" compo when the brothel manager shows up for cash.
Quirks meant extra leverage—jackpot.
Manager decides if he wipes the quirks or not, but now he had grounds to squeeze at least 1 gold each extra.
Soon as they returned, brothel goons were waiting, dragged them off, beat them all day, then released just Hawk to fetch me.
"Haa..."
"Sorry, Cain."
Hawk wasn't a bad guy—just loved women. He'd taught us most of the labyrinth knowledge and survival tips during mentoring matches, so I barely held back from stabbing him with my dagger.
I'd always viewed the mentoring program sideways, but this old fuck taught me how to avoid getting screwed in Labyrinth City and most delving survival skills... shit.
"Handle your own payoff, old man. This the spot?"
Creeeak—
"Hey, shorty, what're we gonna do now that you're here."
"C-Cain... blegh...!"
We reached what looked like an empty warehouse. Inside, Claude sat tied to a chair, his face black-and-blue with bruises.
"You the... guardian for Claude, sir?"
"..."
"We're the ones suffering losses here. Got the settlement cash?"
"How much?"
Part of me wanted to flip the place, but Claude was only level 4, fast growth or not.
Highest known guild master's level: 9.
Shopkeepers and merchants averaged 3-5.
Underworld bosses hit 7-8; guys like this enforcer or manager in front of me? Level 5+ easy.
The city's shadows had built their own castle.
As long as they didn't cross lines the top brass hated, things bent flexibly.
Our two-year-old party? No pull with the elite.
Complain to the guild? They only share opponent's level and blessings for matches.
Then you meet, swap rough info, check reps, interview, and leader decides on diving.
"Let's see... our girls got quirks, and they're the defective kind on their bodies... including removal costs, 3 gold."
"...Old man, your money."
"Ahem! Well..."
"You got none?"
"Just 50 silver..."
"Write an IOU later. Hand over everything for now."
Clink clink—
Rifling through Hawk's pouch got us 58 silver.
"Call it a clean 1-gold loan, take your 8 silver back."
"Thanks..."
"And you? Here's 3 gold."
Whoosh—!
I chucked the pouch hard with feeling, but the guy snatched it easy and checked the contents.
"Oho... clean. You're free to go, Claude."
Thud!
"Urk!"
The man verified the gold and untied Claude.
Claude groaned on the floor, twitching before hauling himself up.
"Hey, we paid up—no more issues, right?"
"Of course~ Can't believe what you did to our girls."
Tsking, he opened a side door. Inside, two girls trembled, semen gushing from their pussies.
One reeked like fishy bad blood quirk. The other had a tentacle thicker than an arm writhing grotesquely from her back.
"Even if you love women, three days straight night and day..."
"Anyway, got a favor. Can you help?"
"What?"
"Blacklist this fucker and the old man from your pleasure houses."
"Blacklist?"
"Banned, duh. We all know you set this up—don't play dumb. 3 gold's plenty sucked; ban 'em for three years."
Calling it out blunt, the guy's face twisted oddly, then he burst laughing.
"Hahaha!! Sure, that's within my authority."
"Wh-what! C-Cain!!"
"Shut it, fucker—or want me to cut your dick off?"
"Urk!"
I glared at Claude like I was furious; he ducked his head and averted his eyes.
Without Sia, we always stirred up big or small shit—finally hit the jackpot.
No more watching him fuck hookers under quirk excuses.
His pleasure house obsession was already guild gossip. To grow into high-rank and take other female party members, time for rep management.
Sia'd be sad too, but my NTL blessing should work even stealing women, so I'd planned to mod Claude into an NTR launcher. Now we save cash and have ban grounds—win-win.
Readjust profit splits too—not guild funds, personal cuts. 9:1, occasional beer buys get bows of thanks. Tighten the purse, squeeze slow.
Out of the rundown warehouse, we hit the guild early: filed temp party return, got Mion to notarize Hawk's 1-gold IOU to me, then back to the inn.
Mion smirked oddly while IOU-ing, eyed Claude and Hawk's state, then gave me an apologetic look.
She'd probably guessed the scam but couldn't warn due to guild rules.
Back home, Sia saw Claude's battered face, freaked, burst into tears, spamming Recovery blessings—par for the course.