A Step of Growth
Stepping into the new dream, I found myself in a rather luxurious private suite.
Someone was already there — and unlike Im Hana and Lamia, she was fully dressed.
This had to be Han Seol-ye.
She wore a black turtleneck with loose purple shorts and a purple leather jacket, the jacket slipped down off her shoulders so they showed bare. At the sudden sight of me she straightened her clothes, a faint flush rising in her cheeks as she turned half away.
She was flustered by a naked man, yes — but she still didn't turn her back on me completely. Solid instincts for a front-liner. There was something of an old-money young lady about her, too.
After studying me for a moment, Han Seol-ye slipped off the jacket, hung it aside, and perched on the edge of the bed. Then she looked up at me with faintly violet eyes and simply waited.
It was the kind of boldness that would never fly in the waking world, but once you knew this was a dream, it seemed people grew a little braver. The same thing had happened with Im Hana and Lamia. Anyone pulled into the dream she made probably had one layer of their heart's locks undone on arrival.
I walked straight to her, pulled her into my arms, and tipped her backward onto the bed. Then I kissed her without any further preamble.
Startled as she was, Han Seol-ye still wrapped her arms around me and slowly answered the kiss.
After a while I drew back and pushed the shirt she was wearing up over her body. Beneath the black bra, her chest came into view.
After nothing but the full, heavy breasts of Im Hana and Lamia, the more modest shape of hers felt strangely novel. Not that they were actually small. The simple fact that they rose in soft mounds even when she was lying down already put them in the top five percent of the real world. And remembering how Im Hana's had grown with continued contact, Han Seol-ye had every chance of the same.
While I looked down and quietly admired the figure hidden under her clothes, she only turned her face a little aside and refused to meet my eyes, offering no other reaction. Her breathing, though, grew steadily rougher — the situation was clearly getting to her.
I peeled away every scrap of clothing, even the accessories like her necklace, taking my time with each piece until she was bare.
Earrings and the false nails remained. After a brief debate with myself I flicked my fingers and banished those too. Technically the new authority let me strip someone with a single snap, but that would have taken all the fun out of it.
With her clothes gone, I moved to the next stage. I set my hand between Han Seol-ye's thighs and began to stimulate her gently. Her breath turned ragged; the soft, dry skin of her body was suddenly sheened with sweat.
As my fingers worked deeper into her soft flesh, the tight interior of her sex gradually eased and grew slick. Once she seemed ready enough, I pushed into her at once.
Her eyes had already gone a little unfocused from the moment the foreplay began; now she panted hard without even noticing the drool gathering at the corner of her mouth. The sheen of sweat thickened until her whole body looked as if she had been dunked in water. She was the heavy-sweating type, apparently.
Watching her lie there with that dazed expression, still as a doll, I suddenly scooped her up and rolled us over. The sudden change of position left her blinking down at me for a second — then she arched her back and began to move on her own.
They said she never debuted because she couldn't dance, but the way she rolled her hips was more than decent. Her sense of rhythm clearly wasn't a total write-off. The effort didn't last long, though. At a certain point her body shuddered as if she had hit climax and simply stopped.
When I laid her down again she only gasped for air as if she had just run a hundred-meter dash. Maybe it wasn't the dancing that held her back — maybe it was the stamina. Cowgirl is harder work than people think, after all.
I rolled her onto her side, wrapped her from behind, and kept going. Starting the thrust-and-retreat again while she was still riding the peak only made her tremors worse. I ignored it for a while, then flipped her onto her stomach and drove in deep, gripping her hips so her rear stayed lifted and thrusting hard. Every time flesh met flesh her breathing only grew more frantic.
When I pinned her neck and drove down from above as if I meant to nail her into the mattress, she still tried her best to keep her hips raised even while she shook. The effort was touching enough that I released her throat and put on a final spurt; she clearly couldn't take much more.
After a stretch of that I turned her onto her back again and finished the last stretch. She only tipped her head back, mouth wide open, gasping. Her eyes had already lost focus. Sensitive in a different way from Lamia.
When I finally came, Han Seol-ye could do nothing but tremble from head to toe as if a current were running through her.
Her sensitivity was almost too high. At some point the bedsheets had soaked through as if rain had fallen on them — every drop of it her sweat.
The skill I gave her was New Moon Dance. A hybrid of swordsmanship and buff skills, but at its root it was dance — maybe it would ease a little of the regret left from her trainee days.
Raising Im Hana and Lamia's levels high enough and making Han Seol-ye a covenant as well left my capacity feeling properly filled at last.
When I returned to the original dream through the rift, she looked me over once and said:
"Congratulations. It would seem the dual class issue is fully resolved at last."
"Oh — really?"
I gave myself a quiet mental pat on the back for all the hardship along the way, then showed her my gratitude with action before waking from the dream.
"..."
When I opened my eyes, the world genuinely looked different.
I got up at once and threw a punch into the air.
"Oh. It works."
I had no idea how frustrating it had been, unable to manage even a simple punch without fumbling.
I gave my hand a single wave. Black butterflies poured from my fingertips, wrapped my body, and settled into the shape of a game character's costume.
"Let's see."
First I changed the wings from a demon's to an angel's. They shifted properly. My hair, which had been two-tone before, was now a blue-tinged black. Not bad. Still, the full game-character look didn't really suit me. Unless I planned to cosplay in public, it wasn't practical.
I pictured a different outfit in my head and changed again — something like a leather rider's suit.
Whoa...
It looked cool, I had to admit. Like some ridiculously strong noona. The problem was that my chest was too large for the zipper to close all the way. Careful work with the butterflies could fix that, but the silhouette still put everything on display.
"Ahem."
I cleared my throat lightly and imagined another look. The image shifted again. This time it was a suit — still the mirror held a noona who looked extremely formidable.
This, at least, felt reasonably presentable. I would try going to work like this today.
"Woooooow..."
I was ordering coffee on the first floor of the Center like any other morning when a familiar voice made me turn. Im Hana stood there with her mouth hanging open in pure shock.
"Good morning. Is there something on my face?"
"Not 'on' it so much as... you took the mask off and you're ridiculously cool."
"Haha. Is that so."
"The suit looks amazing too. Makes me want to call you Noona."
"Ahem. Not unni?"
"Yep."
"Haha."
We sat down together, and a little later Lamia came into the Center. She stepped into the café, spotted me and Im Hana, and visibly startled. Im Hana couldn't even meet her eyes; her face went scarlet and she dropped her head. Fair enough — the two of them had gotten pretty intense the night before. Intense enough that anyone might have wondered if they already had that kind of relationship. What do people call that again? Yuri?
Their brains had basically been pickled in pleasure; they probably hadn't even known who they were biting and sucking on at the time, like a blackout after too much alcohol.
Lamia seemed to be handling it better. Her face was still flushed — clearly remembering the dream — but she pretended not to and asked me a question.
"Is it a special occasion today? I almost didn't recognize you."
"That bad?"
"Yes. Maybe it's the clothes, but you also look more... at ease."
I grinned.
"If that's what you're sensing, it's probably something else entirely."
"Something else?"
I flashed a V-sign at the puzzled Lamia.
"I finally solved the dual class problem."
"Wow! Really?"
"Oh my god! Congratulations, Seha!"
"Thank you. It's all thanks to everyone."
At that, Im Hana laughed and gave my shoulder a light shove.
"Come on, that's not true. We didn't do anything."
"She's right. It's all thanks to the Instructor working so hard."
Not really. It was thanks to fooling around with the two of you in a dream. Of course that was not something I could say out loud.
"Haha. We'll go with that."
I laughed it off. Im Hana suddenly seemed to remember something.
"Wait — does that mean you're quitting the internship?"
"No. The instructor suggested I try putting together a fixed party, so I'm thinking about it."
"A fixed party?"
"Yeah. Perfect timing, actually. Unni, Mia — want to party with me? I may not look it, but I'm a pretty solid tank."
"Uh, well..."
Im Hana hemmed and hawed; she had already been burned badly by a fixed party once. Lamia stayed quiet, thinking something over. I could probably talk Hana around with a little coaxing, but Lamia had agency issues — I might need to look into that first.
"I haven't decided for sure yet either. Just keep it in mind. Personally I think the three of us moving together would work out pretty well."
"I mean, yeah, but..."
I ruffled the still-hesitating Im Hana's hair and stood up.
"I'll head out first. Newbie stat sheets are piling up."
"Okay. Good luck."
"Take care."
"Don't mention it. See you later."
I had scattered the bait. Time to start casting the hook. Ideally I would pull Han Seol-ye in as well, but she still had to finish the new recruit training first. Better to wait.
Turns out being an intern at the Awakened Center is a pretty sweet deal. Of course, I could never tell anyone why.