We found the dungeon core among the forest of giant crystals. The core looked like a small sphere whose color changed with the rank of the dungeon. It would be hell to find such a thing in normal circumstances, but as always, the tiny ball was floating above a fountain in the deepest place in the dungeon.
"It's such a waste to do that." Sarah said while bringing her sword to hand. "Are you guys ready?"
We nodded, ready for what was going to happen. With only a swing of her sword, Sarah destroyed the dungeon core.
At that moment, an intense flash shone right from where the sphere was destroyed. The dungeons were designed to exile everything from outside when they were destroyed.
The next second, when we opened our eyes, we were outside the dungeon, where the entrance should be, but the stone-made building wasn't there anymore.
…
The sun had already set and the moon had already taken over the sky when we conquered the dungeon. We headed back to the town after such a tiring day, being careful not to be attacked by a surrounding monster on the way back.
"Aaaah, finally we are back." Sarah said, almost crying from happiness. "I thought that I'd die from fatigue. I'm so tired…" She entered the inn without thinking twice.
I was also tired after that crazy fight and I was almost following her inside, but right there I noticed that Leo had stopped behind me. He had been acting strange since the boss fight
"Are you all right, Leo?" I asked, showing concern for him.
"It's nothing." He said half-heartedly. "I don't feel tired, so…"
"I'm thinking of walking through the forest at night, right?" I finished his sentence.
"..." He stayed silent. The blond Swordsman had the bad habit of going to the forest alone in the dark. One of his solo hunting trips. The problem was that monsters got more agitated at night, using the darkness to their advantage against humans.
"I don't mind if you want to get stronger, but there's a difference between health training and a suicide attempt." I said to him calmly. "We had a tough day and almost got killed, so I think that some rest is necessa…"
"So I should stay weak?" He said angrily to me. "As you said, we almost died. And that was my fault."
"Your fault?"
"That's right, I'm the strongest among the trio, but I barely managed to fight that thing. No, on the contrary, I got hurt at the start of the battle because of my incompetence." He said, laughing at himself.
Leo was a very proud guy. 'And now he is blaming himself for falling in battle.'
"Don't be an idiot."
"What?"
"No matter how much you get stronger, Andrea will never come back." I said coldly.
Leo came right after me and grabbed me by the collar. He was really mad at what I said, and I didn't blame him. I was cold-hearted for saying this, but someone needed to confront his stupidity.
If he continued to push himself without the MC powers, he could end up dead, so someone needed to tell him the obvious.
The trio lost people they loved due to monster attacks years ago, when they were kids. In Rick's case, it was his mother, and in Leo's, it was his older sister.
I stayed there, held by my collar, my expression serious and unchanged while he stared angrily at me.
I was ready to get punched, and probably I would deserve it for opening his old wound, but he let me go without hitting me. The Swordsman just turned his back on me and went straight to the woods.
"Don't try to put the weight of the world on your shoulders. If you do that, sooner or later you won't be able to handle it." I shouted in his direction.
He stopped walking, but he didn't turn his head.
"I'll do as I please." He said back.
"You'll regret this." I continued warning, but my words didn't reach him.
"That idiot." I cursed, but no one listened.
…
I stayed outside for a while, trying to digest my talk with Leo. I went too far trying to take him out of his guilt, but I failed.
'I shouldn't be so insensitive. When they did it in the book, that worked.' I stayed pensive until I calmed myself. 'There's no point in continuing to ruminate on this. When I see him again, I'll apologize.'
I was standing with my back against the inn's wall when a couple passed in front of me, all lovey-dovey.
'W-Wait, love! It's right! Now it's my chance!' Only when Leo disappeared from my view did I notice that I was alone for the first time since I gained my System. Just to be cautious, I hid myself in a back alley to be sure that no one would see me.
"Freya said that the System has a HUD, but… Aah!" A blue HUD coming from nowhere startled me.
[
Valkyrie Tamer System
Name: Richard Forster
Class: Valkyrie Tamer
Level: 1
Valkyries: 0/3
]
"My class really changed. I never heard about this class before. Let's see…" After clicking on a magnifying glass right beside the class name, the info text about the special class appeared.
[ Valkyrie Tamer: The user of this class has the power to make Awakened women into his underlings, upgrading their classes to one of the special Valkyrie classes and giving them special skills. You can receive certain skills from the Valkyries by satisfying them sexually, and use them as your own. ]
"Wow! So I can give new powers to the girls. It's how Freya said. It's possible for me to become stronger." The text continued explaining its restrictions.
[ This can only be activated if the user has some level of intimacy with the woman. The level of the new Valkyrie is reset to 1, and the user can release the Valkyrie if she is unfaithful. The released Valkyrie will reset her power to the state right before she became a Valkyrie. ]
"So the girls can only have special powers with my permission, and if they don't, there is a penalty. I wouldn't like to get to the point of releasing a Valkyrie, but if she betrays me or does something unforgivable, it is the right thing to do." I said, talking to myself.
"Hmm, skills…"
[
Skills:
]
My eyes searched the HUD interface, only to find an empty list of skills.
"I really lost my powers. Now I can't even create potions, it's kind of depressing, y'know?" I talked to the HUD, and to my surprise, it responded.
[ Your skills were reset along with your class. ]
"Can you talk to me?" I was surprised by the screen in front of me.
[ Yes, I can respond to all your questions about the System. ]
"That helps a lot. So let me think… How can I learn new skills? I was from the Everyman class, so I couldn't learn by leveling up. Can you explain this to me?"
[ Of course. Don't worry about it. In the Valkyrie Tamer class, there are two ways to gain a new skill:
1 - Leveling up. That will grant you skills from the Valkyrie Tamer class. Most of them help you with your sexual prowess.
2 - Have sex with one or more of your Valkyries. That will grant you skills from their classes. ]
"Which woman can I transform into a Valkyrie?" I asked. This was something that Freya already told me, but I wanted to confirm.
[ You can only transform Awakened women that you had sex with. Even if you're dating someone, if you didn't get her to bed, it won't work. ]
"Is there a way to help me find girls for my harem? The world is huge, so I might need a hand to find them."
[ Sorry, but I can't pinpoint where exactly they are out there. But I can help if a potential Valkyrie is close to you. ]
"How can you help me?"
[ If there is a good candidate for your harem nearby, you will receive a notification from the System. ]
"It won't be some kind of annoying notification spam, right?" I asked suspiciously.
[ Don't worry about that. The System won't disturb you at any moment, only in a visible situation that could bring you two together. When something like that happens, you will receive a mission that you can accept or refuse, depending on how you act. ]
"A mission, right? I can earn something from it, besides starting a relationship."
[ You can receive something as a reward for completing the mission. Lady Freya is always watching, so she could drop something for you. ]
"I'm some kind of pet doing some tricks?" I asked grumpily.
[ Well, if you don't want… ]
"I'll take it." I quickly said, not wanting to have that door shut in my face. "Well, I think that's it for now. I can look at more of this later, after all, there is something I need to do."
I closed the window screen in front of me and went inside the inn. I still wanted to meet Sarah before she slept.