14. The Two of Us
Seven scimitars, ten daggers, twelve greataxes. That was the list of metal we'd hauled out of the labyrinth today. To secure funds, we went straight to the smithy to sell it off, and it brought in five gold coins and two silver.
By this point, the blacksmith had started eyeing us with suspicion.
"Tia, you're not doing anything dangerous, are you?"
"I haven't forgotten the lesson that safety matters most in a dungeon."
"Well, that's a relief, then."
Tia and I sorted out the money we'd each saved. My share of the funds came to fifteen gold. Tia's funds came to fourteen.
"We could afford a better inn than the one we've been staying at, you know?"
"Is that all right? Our spare funds aren't that large......"
"Our income's decent, though."
Just today's earnings alone came to two gold and six silver per person. Even if we stayed at a place costing two gold, we'd still have six silver left over.
"Don't other level 3 adventurers live like this too?"
"Those people are a bit different."
According to Tia, level 3 adventurers accumulated Contribution Points instead of experience. Then they used those Contribution Points to buy potions at the temple.
"As insurance?"
"No. They resell them to the potion workshops."
They bought potions with Contribution Points equivalent to 1,500 experience. Reselling those to a workshop earned about twenty-five gold. For a four-person party, that profit came to about two and a half gold per day.
She said that with about two gold a day, you could live with a fair amount of luxury.
"Wait, then why do the workshops buy them?"
"They supply them to the temple."
"Is that allowed?"
"Apparently they're treated as made by a craftsman whose name is just attached to them."
This was basically a prize redemption center.
With this structure, money flowed from the temple to the potion workshops and the subsistence parties. In exchange, what accumulated with the temple was Contribution Points.
"What in the world do they use Contribution Points for that the temple maintains this kind of system?"
"From what I've heard, they're used to exercise the gods' Authority."
Specifically, she said they were used for things like entering and leaving the labyrinth through the Travel God's Authority, or periodically summoning adventurers and merchants from outside.
"Anyway, living on the same level as those people isn't good."
"No, Tia. There's a big difference between subsistence parties and us."
"What is it?"
"We earn experience."
Subsistence parties converted all the offerings they got from hunting into Contribution Points. We gained experience from the offerings we got from hunting, and the money we earned as a byproduct matched their income.
"We're going to keep climbing to higher levels."
"......Because we keep going through closed-type labyrinths."
Tia wore an expression that said she'd accepted it in her own way. But my curiosity, if anything, surged.
"Why don't other adventurers go to the caves or temple labyrinths?"
Even with other drawbacks, there was a huge difference in experience gain.
"Well, there are adventurers who go."
But those adventurers met one of two ends, she said. Either they lost their lives at the end of reckless adventures, or they left the City of Light after rapid growth. Either way, they weren't people who remained in the city.
Tia seemed to think we would become the latter.
"Anyway, so we can afford a little luxury, right?"
"Mm, with our current income, it seems we could spend two gold a day."
"Then is there an inn you've had your eye on?"
"......There is."
With that, Tia led me to an inn that looked clean.
"This is an inn that level 3 adventurers are said to frequent."
"So it suits our level."
"It's two gold a day for room and board, but the meals are decent, and above all,"
"Above all?"
"There's a bath."
A bath, she said. At the inn we'd been staying at until now, they only provided warm water. We'd just soaked a towel in it and wiped ourselves down. Being able to take a proper bath was definitely a big perk.
"Then want to bathe together?"
At that, Tia answered flatly.
"It's not a private bath. The men's and women's baths are separate, so put that thought away."
If we could bathe together, the things we could do would increase. Even as I felt regret, I entered the inn with the anticipation of being able to soak my body in warm water.
The innkeeper gave us a quick once-over as we came in and asked.
"Meals only? Or lodging too?"
"One double room."
"How many beds?"
"One is fine."
"Wh-what do you mean by that!"
"One is fine."
The innkeeper took the gold with practiced ease and handed over the key. I led the red-faced Tia to the room written on the key.
The room was a little larger than the one we'd used before, and above all, it was spotless. Tia, having barely come inside, was lingering near the entrance.
"Aren't you going to unpack?"
"Once I unpack, won't you act like a beast?"
What does she think of me?
"We can eat, bathe, and then enjoy ourselves."
When I said that, Tia, who had already set down her things, came over to me.
"Hey, Do-hyeon."
Tia clung to me and sniffed. Sniff, sniff.
"Why?"
"Today, did you sleep with that woman called the librarian?"
Tia threw a fastball right away. As I stood there at a loss for how to answer, Tia continued on her own.
"I'm sorry that I have such a worthless body."
"That's not it, Tia. Your body is plenty lovely."
"But you slept with another woman."
"I'm sorry about that."
"No, it must have been unavoidable because of your ability."
Tia, too, seemed to have some inkling about my ability. She'd been using her Feat, Sharpshooter, and her class Features right beside me the whole time, so it would have been stranger if she hadn't noticed.
"The way you cling to me every time and thrust into this body—that too must have been to maintain the ability you gave me."
Huh? That's not it, though. But Tia, unable to read my thoughts, kept talking.
"Still, thank you for continuing to adventure with me, even though I'm a worthless party member who can't even hunt with you unless I receive your seed."
Tia looked so terribly lonely as she said that. Just how low is your self-esteem?
"Someday, you'll soar to places higher than where you are now. But even if only until then, please keep staying with me."
Tia spoke as if gazing somewhere far away.
"I'll work hard too. Even if I can't follow you, so that I can stand on my own after you leave."
Hey, Tia. It's good that you've made up your mind like that, but...
"Tia, there seems to be one misunderstanding."
"What is it? If it's about women, you don't need to make excuses."
"That ability I gave you—there's no particular condition for maintaining it, you know?"
At that, Tia's body went rigid.
"Th-then everything you've done to me until now—!"
"Well, because you're lovely."
I took a step closer as I said it. I wrapped my arms around her small frame and spoke.
"I did it purely because I like you."
At those words, Tia cried out with tears welling in her eyes.
"And yet you went to another woman—"
Arguing back here would be pointless. I kissed her, cutting off those words.
"Mmph, mnhh!"
As I did, my hands slowly stripped off her armor.
Click, thud.
The leather breastplate fell to the floor. Tia was distracted by the tongue tangling with hers. Just like that, I slipped my hand inside her green cloth clothes.
"Nn, nnhh!"
I nudged aside her panties, which had soaked through in an instant, and slid my fingers in.
"Nnnnh!"
Tia climaxed lightly. To have such a lewd body and not realize her own charm. I pulled my lips away and spoke to Tia.
"I told you earlier in the labyrinth, didn't I? To look forward to tonight."
"It's not even evening yet."
"I'll make it so you can't come to your senses until night."
"No. Dinner and a bath—"
"That's after we do it once first."
I lifted Tia's body up and tossed her onto the bed. She was already slick and wet both above and below, waiting for me.
Tia liked kissing me. She didn't say it with words, but her body was honest.
So I filled those emptied lips again. I held her face and pushed my tongue in.
With my left hand I squeezed her pert breast, and with my right I groped her secret hole.
"Nnnnh!"
Tia gave a nasal sound of assent. After I thrust a few more times, her back arched sharply.
I pulled my mouth away from hers and aimed my cock at Tia's hole.
"No matter how many times I see it, it's a size I can't get used to."
Tia measured my cock with her own hand. At a length her fully spread hand couldn't even cover, Tia looked a little daunted.
"It's the thing that'll fill your empty heart to the brim."
"You mean you intend to fill me to the brim with semen."
As we talked like that, I slowly inserted into her loosened flesh.
"Nnhh—"
Tia took my cock with practiced ease and let out a moan. Soon my cock reached the end of her.
"Do-hyeon."
"Yeah. Tia."
"Hold me hard. Hard enough that I forget everything else."
A confession asking me to give her enough love to calm her own jealousy.
"Wh-why is it getting bigger?!"
"Because you keep saying lewd things, Tia."
I wrapped both arms around Tia so she couldn't move. So tightly I worried her small body might be crushed.
"Do-hyeon, Do-hyeon, Do-hyeon!"
My cock ravaged Tia's body, which had nowhere to flee. The rhythm was hard. Hard. Hard. Hard.
Just as Tia wanted, I crushed that small frame beneath me.
"I love you, Do-hyeon. No matter what you think of me."
What did I think of Tia? A lover? Someone convenient who let me have her? A sex partner?
Even knowing my fate of having no choice but to embrace countless women, right now I thought only of the woman before my eyes.
Because I didn't want to let go of even one thing that had come into my hands. I poured all my attention into the only warmth that stayed within my grasp.
I drove my cock in to the very end of her belly. I pulled it out as if carving out her insides.
The liquid filled with love endlessly heated the space between Tia and me. In that heat, Tia melted into a puddle.
"Do-hyeon, Do-hyeon, I'm coming, hyaaang!"
Tia's hole clenched around me without pause.
I shot thick seed into it.
"Ah, n-no, I'm cumming!"
Tia's pronunciation was falling apart.
That sight was so lovely that I flipped Tia's body over as it was for round two. Admiring the beautiful curve of her back, I inserted into Tia's body once more.
"D-Do-hyeon?!"
Tia, having come to her senses, thrashed to escape, but it was already too late.
I laced my fingers with hers from behind and held her hands.
"I told you, didn't I? To look forward to it?"
"N-no! At this rate, the bath—nnh—we'll be—nnh—late for—ahh—it."
Even as she said no, Tia's body reacted each time I thrust into her.
"Don't worry. I'll make sure we're on time."
As long as you don't pass out, that is.
It was a night when I could enjoy Tia, dinner, and a bath all in one.
***
The next morning, after finishing breakfast, we headed to the Great Library. Tia decided to investigate what had happened in the labyrinth, and I decided to ask Eira as well.
Of course, before that—
"Nnhh! I'm cumming! I'm cumming!"
Eira had been a virgin until yesterday; today I thoroughly took her from behind. Judging by how much stronger her reactions were than yesterday, she seemed to like the new position.
After Eira finished the cleaning blowjob, I asked her something I'd been curious about.
"Eira, are there monsters in the labyrinth that can talk?"
At that, Eira's expression stiffened.
"......You can encounter them in the middle floors."
"Can you swear you won't tell anyone else what I'm about to say?"
When I asked that, since it seemed like a serious matter, Eira readily agreed.
"I swear by the God of Magic that I will keep what you are about to tell me to myself alone."
"Yesterday, on the second floor of the cave, I met a hobgoblin that talked."
At that, Eira's ears perked up.
"And we formed an alliance."
"And?"
"We became enemies with orcs and hunted them."
"And?"
"That's all."
"No. That's only the beginning."
According to Eira, forming an alliance with a "talking monster" was something that occasionally happened in the middle floors. Alliances were also formed on other floors of that labyrinth, and you only had to kill the opposing monsters. Ultimately, you just had to make your allied faction the ruler of every floor.
"If you distinguish yourself in that process, you can receive rewards from your allies, or so I've heard."
"Does that pay?"
Maybe because I was now independent, I'd become sensitive to money leaking away.
I asked about money first.
"You can get Magic Items, of course, and if you're lucky, even Feats, Boons, or Blessings."
"So such an amazing opportunity has come to me?"
This too must be thanks to the Authority.
Having finished the conversation, Eira immediately switched into teacher mode.
"Then I'll begin today's lesson."
Fortunately, maybe because she was satisfied today, it wasn't a violent lesson.
***
The information Tia had investigated wasn't much different from what Eira had told me. It just added a bit more detail.
We entered the labyrinth, showed our token on the first floor, passed safely through the goblin horde, and entered the second floor.
And then,
"Hm? Seeing that token, are you the Incubus Race Robin spoke of? I've heard good things about you."
"To carry Robin's token—you must be an honorable Incubus Race."
"Is that Robin's token? So you're the one they say is so devout!"
......What in the world has Robin been doing? Every hobgoblin we ran into treated me like this, and it was embarrassing.
But this kind of conversation was necessary, because the areas marked on the map had changed a little.
The region we'd hunted in yesterday and then left had changed from orc territory to hobgoblin territory.
"The decrease in orcs in this area is also thanks to you all, isn't it? If you have the time, stop by the village."
The hobgoblins updated our map and marked their forward base on it as well. They said we'd be able to receive rewards matching the achievements we'd earned.