(TLDR for non-patrons. During last night's frisky activities, the girls found a way to use Zery's draconic magic and the slave collars to make it so they are denied any pleasure unless Sol gives it to them. They can pleasure each other, but only if Sol allows. Blame it on Elyra for her masochism, but in truth it was Zery who began the whole thing. Then Vespera escalated it and, well…)
We slept together, all bunched up against Zery to the point we almost overheated her, the poor dragon. We had tried our best to make her comfortable, but it wasn't like there was much we could do when she was chained to the ceiling.
Thus, after waking up and having breakfast, we tried to break the chains once more.
I was sure we could do it if we found a way to reach the strange state Elyra had reached back when she teleported the core now powering the System. It had been similar to the Nephilim State but better, with four sets of wings and all the magics coursing through her.
Yet, no matter how much we tried, we couldn't even get close to that strange state again. We even mixed our minds, sharing senses, emotions, memories, and awareness, letting our magics mix and course through us, but something clearly eluded us.
I banged a fist on the floor, frustration mounting and threatening to turn into actual rage.
"It's okay," Zery said softly. "We'll get there."
"It's taking too long," I said, still angry. "I don't want to see you in this state anymore. You're my dragon, and you should be free."
She smiled at the juxtapositions of being mine and being free.
"You keep me company all the time," she said. "Perhaps even to the detriment of other things. I am willing to wait all the time that's needed."
"We need more power," I said. "Calla, can you ask the System?"
"Its answer is the same as before," she said. "As its agents, our way to gain power is to perform tasks and deliver cores, but with the cracked battery, we should prioritize the task of delivering the new battery first. At the same time, task rewards deplete energy, a thing to keep in mind."
"This is so convoluted," Vespera grumbled. "Can't the System just re-route energy from other people into us? Make us super powerful?"
The dryad shook her head. "It has freedom to act, but it still cannot go against its core programming."
"Can it at least let us level normally? Why do we need to bring back cores?" the demon argued.
"We are agents now. To return to normal leveling would mean to lose our privileges. As agents, we are required to complete tasks and deliver cores. Wait, actually…" she paused, cocking her head. "Not cores, but energy of any kind. Cores are what the System is used to, but it allows for anything we can find. It is very capable of adapting and rendering energy sources compatible."
"Well, then," I said, then Vespera cut me off.
"All this is assuming it's telling us the truth," the demon said.
Elyra shrugged. "It has no reason to lie. Its continued existence relies on us. The current cracked battery," she asked Calla. "Is it still working?"
"Yes, but it is on borrowed time," Calla replied.
"That settles it," I said. "We remain the System's agents, but we have our priorities. Freeing Zery comes first. Do you all agree?"
Nods from the girls. Good. We were all onboard. Which meant that the first order of business was to gain a level, perhaps two, and the fastest way was going to be to kill monsters in the tunnels and bring back cores. In the meantime, we could also map the tunnels to find Skitterpede nests, their roaming grounds, and maybe even a way to reach the mountains where the core behind where Vespera had been kept prisoner was waiting.
Of course, getting that core, as well as investigating the rooms that were once home to a System sector that got destroyed, were still pretty high in our list of priorities but they came after we found a way to free Zery. And lower still was all the city business in Perseverance's End, although that was on a timer. We had a meeting with a couple of club members and even a Freebuilder, mediated by Ted, planned in a few days to begin our work transmuting the stone into Blackstone.
The work would also make us earn a ludicrous amount of money, and money meant gear, which in turn meant more power.
◈◈◈
"I cannot believe we did that with Zery," Elyra said as we walked down the tunnels.
She was blushing, running a hand across her body and feeling how the sensations were strange and muted. It aroused her to no end, and it spilled into the bond.
"Me neither," Calla said. "But I feel like we are so much closer together now."
We were all together, save for the dragon. The drayd had offered to stay behind and keep her company, claiming that we could bring back the cores to her and that we needed to be close to either the control room or her tree to be able to deliver the cores anyway, but we convinced her to come with us.
She needed to get out of her comfort zone and confront her fear of the outside, even if the tunnels were admittedly rather unpleasant for the most part. Here and there, the wet, bare stone gave way to rooms and broken machines, which we ignored.
Vespera smirked. "Shared woes and all that? You should know, I'm already at my limit."
"We know," said an exasperated angel. "And it hasn't even been a day!"
The demon shrugged. "What can I say?"
"What you could do is stop touching yourself, angel." Zery said. "And focus!" she spoke into our minds, and her tone brooked no argument. She was watching through our eyes, mildly annoyed at how casually we were approaching the whole thing.
Feeling her gaze like that of a predator breathing down our necks, waiting for us to dare get distracted again, we did finally focus. We made good time, explored a couple new tunnels, and watched the map in the guild token slowly expand to incorporate the new locations.
It was like a game minimap, and the yellow status indicator at the top-right corner meant that we were paying a whopping gold a day to Bib to make sure that whatever we found wasn't relayed back to the guild. We still got the three pings a day package to see where the monsters were, but the tunnels were undiscovered, and nobody was reporting information about them, nor any magic scanned them because either nobody at the guild knew they extended this far, or they did not care. We were on our own. No red dots telling us where the danger was.
We stopped. Zery had been the first to notice, listening through Elyra's ears. Her command to halt and take position was utter and absolute. We waited, staring at the dark, seeing sets of red eyes and hearing the chittering of mandibles and carapace.
We finally saw them. Five Skitterpedes. We had no inspect skill, but if their size was any indication, these were huge.
More commands from Zery followed. She might not have memories from her time with the dragons, but she must have been not only a formidable fighter, but also someone who knew how to coordinate a ragtag team of mismatched people.
She gave orders, and we followed them. The nature of the bond meant that she didn't need to explain anything even when the concepts were hard or new, and we fought like a well-oiled machine. Elyra's new red laser obliterated one Skitterpede and my magic missile another, and by the time the other three reacted and put up defenses, they had already been ensnared by Calla's thorny brambles. Two of them were in the process of being cut to ribbons by Vespera's claws, while another attacked her from behind, only for its sharp claws to be repelled by a shield. The demon's tail shot up, impaling it, and I finished it with a punch.
All this without a shred of hesitation, second guessing or confusion. The whole fight flowed like water, like watching a neuro-stim movie or playing a game. And it was all thanks to Zery.
"Crazy how each new addition to the bond just makes us so much more," I said.
"No going around stealing girls' hearts, spacer boy," Vespera said, shooting me a look with red eyes that burned with jealousy and possessiveness. "Your harem's big enough for now."
Elyra chuckled.
"What?" the demon asked.
"I found it funny, that is all. The fact that you understand, despite all, that whatever restraint you might impose on the bond is only temporary. Sol's harem will grow and you, little troublemaker, will be the one helping him grow it."
"We'll see about that, cat-angel," Vespera said.
We finished up taking out the cores from all the corpses, and moved on in search of more prey. A long day awaited us, because we had no plans to stop except to eat and drink, until we finally reached Bond Level 4.
◈◈◈
Bond Level 3 → 4
"Finally!" Vespera exclaimed. She was drenched in monster gore. Not only from Skitterpedes, but from all manner of ugly creatures we found roaming in the underground of the world. "Wait a minute," she said, her eyes narrowing and her voice growing tense. "Where are the gains?"
"The System is… thinking?" Calla said uncertainly.
"Are you asking us?" the demon snapped.
"No, I…"
"Vespera," I warned her. "Easy on Calla."
"Thank you for looking out for me, Sol," the dryad said. "I know her anger is not at me. I am, honestly, as perplexed with the System as she is. Ah. There. The System asks: stats or a skill?"
"Why not both?" I ventured. "Why even ask?"
"It isn't able to do both, and it wishes to help its agents," she replied.
"It used to," I argued. "What gives? Does it need more cores?"
"It says it's one thing per level now. But in exchange, it can make it very powerful. It also says the easy levels are pretty much over."
I inhaled. Fine. Whatever.
Vespera wasn't very fine, though. "This whole agents of the System thing kinda sucks, though. Again, nothing against you Calla, just let it know."
"It knows," she replied, an angry glint in her eyes. "Trust me, it knows. This whole anchor dryad business is also quite tacky."
"Tacky?" I repeated.
"Must be a Vesperanism," Elyra offered.
"I'd never say tacky!" the demon defended herself.
"In any case, what do we choose?" I asked.
"Up to you, spacer boy," Vespera said.
The others nodded, as did Zery from back in the control room.
"Alright, System. I choose skill and it better be a good one, otherwise I don't see any use in being your agents, if you catch my meaning."
Calla smiled. "Perhaps we need to threaten it more often. It's gathering energy."
Moments later, a window appeared in our vision.
Energy expended to reclaim and upgrade old skill [Aspect Manifestation].
Change is inevitable…
Changing skill…
Proposing trade: I, the System currently acting in Sector B2TTn#-7, will swear a binding Oath to help you in any way I can. In exchange, you will swear a binding Oath to remain my agents and help me fight the existential threat of the void which negates and destroys all magic, born of the same machine gods that eradicated Sol's civilization. The Oath will bind us, and empower us both.
Vespera blinked. "What in the heavens?"
"I guess we should not have threatened to leave," Elyra said.