Subordinate:

  Minor Vitality Recovery Boost (1-3h)

  Minor Spiritual Recovery Boost (1-3h)

  Minor Fatigue Recovery Boost (1-3h)

  Bonded:

  Regular Vitality Recovery Boost (4-12h)

  Regular Spiritual Recovery Boost (4-12h)

  Regular Fatigue Recovery Boost (4-12h)

  Attributes: +10-50% (12-24h)

  ★━━━━━━━━━━★

  “Pardon me for a moment.”

  I stood up and moved behind Aisha while she observed me curiously. She looked back up at me as I placed my hands on her shoulders.

  “Relax a little if you would.”

  She nodded and turned to face the front again, taking a deep breath. I started to gently knead her shoulders, trying to remember that one time we had a guy invited to my old job’s office, who was supposed to show us a trick or two to help our coworkers chill out a little.

  “Mmmmmmm… Ohhhhhh… Oh! Ohhhhh…” Aisha began releasing occasional, quiet moans and trembled a bit under my fingers.

  I kept it up for a minute or two, putting as much effort into it as I could, before gradually withdrawing.

  “Decent?” I asked.

  “More than decent, I would say. It felt really nice,” she answered with a smile.

  I smiled back and sat down by her side again, moving to Subordinate Management to take a peek at her status. And, sure enough, there were some additional numbers in brackets beside the regular values of her attributes, along with a timer counting down from twelve hours at the top of the section and a note that the buff’s strength was twenty-five percent. I spotted the icon to show the list of the boosts too, counting down from six hours.

  “Shit. I just realized that this was pointless.” I slapped my forehead.

  “Why?” Aisha raised a brow at me.

  “After I got the skills, we had some fun in the bathroom.”

  “Ah. So, the effect of this ability was already applied. Oh well. At least I got a free massage.” She chuckled.

  “I wanted to see how much of a benefit something non-sexual gave, but I guess we’ll have to check that out later.”

  “I think I’m going to like you experimenting with this.” Aisha smirked at me and I shook my head with a smile. “What’s next?”

  Returning to my own Status, I brought up the next new skill.

  ★━━━━━━━━━━★

  Red String (F)

  An everlasting thread of fate links you with all your Bonded, allowing you to sense their presence perfectly, no matter the circumstances.

  Distance: 5 km

  ★━━━━━━━━━━★

  “Relatively simple, but another banger of a skill. It combines with Thought Communication perfectly,” I said.

  “No wonder Overlords always seemed kind of strong with a kit like this. Well, keeping in mind that other paths might work differently, of course.”

  “Don’t forget the submission part. This is only for Bonded.”

  Aisha smirked at me, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. We moved to the previous to last of my new skills. I wondered what she had gotten out of this.

  ★━━━━━━━━━━★

  Together We Stand (F)

  The presence of Bonded by your side fills you with power, as they share their strength with you to overcome adversity as one.

  Attributes: +10% of the Bonded companion’s values (per person)

  ★━━━━━━━━━━★

  “I see. That’s where my numbers in brackets came from. I was wondering if there was a pleasure bonus for me, too, but this explains it.” I nodded to myself, rubbing my chin.

  “This just screams at you to get more women.” Aisha gestured at the monitor with both hands. “Or men.” She paused. “Are you into that?”

  “I think you can guess the answer to that.” I smiled at her.

  “Right. Just making sure.” She winked at me. “Anyway, the more the better for you. I’m sure that bonus will rise with the skill’s rank too. This can be big in the future. Hesitating about making more Subordinates into Bonded would be doing yourself a huge disservice.”

  “I get it. I’m not really… opposed to this, but let’s see who we end up with first. The benefits are great, but it’s not like I should instantly shove this onto every single person we recruit from day one. I feel like it’s more of a long-term commitment.”

  Aisha pondered for a moment and nodded. “You are right. I might be pushing on it too much. It’s just so exciting. I’ve never heard about anything like it. You are really making my second round an interesting one.”

  I chuckled softly. “I’m glad. And, to make it even more interesting, let’s move to your skills now.”

  “Finally.”

  Aisha showed me a wide smile and her tail began swaying much more actively, betraying her eagerness. It looked utterly sexy and completely adorable. I could check up on Intimidate later. We both could guess what it did, more or less.

  Moving to the Subordinate Menu again, I began clicking on her new skills.

  ★━━━━━━━━━━★

  For the King (F)

  Your desire to serve and protect your Overlord resonates with his other Bonded. Your power rises with each person by your side who shares the same bond as you do. Together, you are indomitable.

  Attributes: +10% (per person)

  Fortitude: +10% (per person)

  ★━━━━━━━━━━★

  “Nice. I get some bonuses depending on the number of your Bonded too. It’s a little different and will always be a little behind, but hey, this will make me so much stronger. I really hit the jackpot getting summoned by you, didn’t I?” Aisha chuckled, sending me a glance.

  “I told you. I’ll turn you into the best Berserker in this… universe?” I shrugged with a smile. “Now I have even more tools at my disposal to do so. I’m glad to know that the entire team is going to be gaining from this, though.”

  “Soon, we will be busting through Dungeons like dwarves through cheap bars! We need to clear the next one fast and grab the Subordinate Token!”

  “Right, right. Don’t get too hyped. We won’t get anywhere, if we end up dead in some dark, underground alley.” I chuckled.

  “Yeah, that would be a shame. I wonder how your Class functions as a servant, though,” Aisha mused.

  “Who knows? I’ll keep praying I won’t get the chance to find out.”

  “I’ll make sure to keep you alive, then.”

  “Much appreciated.” I nodded to my drakan Berserker. “Now. One more to go.”

  ★━━━━━━━━━━★

  Unwavering Loyalty (F)

  The figure of your Overlord inspires you and raises your morale. It’s close to impossible to shake your spirit, or take control of your mind. There’s only one person you submit to, and nothing else will ever top that.

  Immunity to: Minor Mind Control, Lesser Mind Control, Mind Control.

  High resistance to: Greater Mind Control.

  Partial resistance to: Major Mind Control.

  Mental Resistance +100%

  ★━━━━━━━━━━★

  “Some safety is always welcome,” Aisha commented. “Especially against Mind Control. Not many monsters are able to use it, but it’s the people you should fear the most. I’m really glad this is here, even if it doesn’t seem all that big at a first glance.”

  “I can easily tell how big this is. I bet it reaches full immunity in the higher ranks. Might be tricky to rank up, though.”

  “True. I would most likely have to fight back against such attempts. Well, unless we come across a monster that will let us use it to train, we can’t do much about it. I assume resisting your Command won’t help.”

  I nodded. “I would think so too. All these skills technically revolve around me, so it’s very likely. This one protects you from the influence of others. We can always try, but I think it would only bring you discomfort.”

  “Maybe one day. This level of protection is already pretty great.”

  “So, that’s all you got from me. Want to check out the Piercing Roar?” I asked.

  Aisha shook her head. “No need. I know it well. It just staggers enemies in a certain area around me. No real new skills for me at this level, not yet.”

  “That might change soon, especially as we begin to alter your current path a little.”

  “I’m very much looking forward to experiencing that.” She smiled.

  “Alright. Let’s get the storage upgrade off our list and move back into the Dungeon. We’ve wasted quite a bit of time in here, instead of collecting our hard-earned spoils of war.”

  “If I had to do it over again, I would gladly choose wasting time with you, the very same way.” Aisha winked at me.

  I chuckled. “You sure would. Same for me, though. I’ll make sure we take some time to properly waste every now and then.”

  “Brilliant.”

  I moved to the Residence Management submenu, and we began pondering together over the placement of our new storage chamber. Using the permit, we would receive a room twice the size of the bathroom, already equipped with some shelves, weapon and armor racks, and a few additional chests.

  We dragged the flashing rectangle all around the floor schematics of my apartment, finally placing it behind the bathroom, along the wall which extended towards the main section of the apartment, back where the sleeping area was.

  I had to remove one wardrobe from between the bathroom’s wall and the bed, since that would be where the entrance to our new storage would pop up. It was fun. One moment, it was there, and then another—after I’d clicked on the furniture to move it into the construction inventory—it was gone. Poof. No wardrobe.

  Fucking magic.

  Then, I set the storage down and the room shook slightly. I wondered if anyone else in the building felt it, but I was literally sitting in a sealed dimension that could expand infinitely, so there was no way in hell my actions affected normal people in any way.

  Did that mean we had soundproof walls? I guess we would learn sooner or later, when someone came to complain about how loud we had been just recently.

  After adding the storage chamber to my apartment, a reinforced wooden door popped into existence, exactly where the wardrobe had been. We stood up and walked up to it. I had no issue opening it and we both peered inside.

  The space was truly twice as big as the bathroom. The shelves and other things were arranged neatly in rows along the walls and through the middle of the room. Wall sconces glowed along the wall at regular intervals, lit by crystals that gave off a warm, gentle light that filled the whole place.

  Cozy. Real cozy.

  We quickly moved the chests standing near the bed into this new storage and began preparing for a scavenging hunt. We didn’t want to miss out on some sweet loot because we took too long admiring the new things and our rewards. That could always happen later.

  So, we geared up, picking out the biggest backpacks and bags, before heading out to earn some more money.

  Chapter 15

  Cleaning Up

  “So, how much time do we have left?” Aisha asked after we locked the entrance to my apartment behind us.

  “You should now be able to check such things through your watch. Here, let me show you how.”

  I stepped closer to her side and lifted Aisha’s wrist. She observed my intentionally slow motions as I switched the holographic display on. Then, moving my finger over the glass surface, I navigated through the mobile DCI Hub app and brought it to the Assignments menu, where the information about the Dungeons could be found.

  After tapping on the Tutorial Dungeon, we checked the timer. It showed that we had slightly over twenty-two hours left to explore the closing Dungeon. For a few more minutes, I helped Aisha operate the device, under my guidance. It was much more difficult than using a smartphone, because the phone’s bigger screen made everything so much easier. But, at least, there was the holo function.

  “I’m only starting to understand how to use this, but I’m already wondering how I was able to function without this little gadget in my previous life. It’s so easy to check my status and other things,” Aisha commented as she navigated through different sections.

  “I guess the dwarves you have mentioned a few times in the past, haven’t made such things yet?”

  She shook her head. “No way. Some magitech was popular, yes, but this is way too advanced and widespread. You could only find the most useful things in dwarven domains and lands. It seems like anyone in your realm can get their hands on something like this.”

  “True. But I don’t think they can get a magical version, which supposedly was made by some dwarves working for my company.”

  Aisha shrugged. “I can see how they would thrive in this realm. I can’t wait to see what other magitech wonders I’ll get to experience with you. For sure, this is not the best they can offer.”

  I chuckled. “First, we need to earn some money. I don’t think my kind supporter will keep showering us with expensive gifts each time we clear a Dungeon.”

  “What are we still standing here for, then?” Aisha smirked and rested her axe on her shoulder. “Let’s grab as much stuff as we can before the connection gets cut off.”

  “Alright. In the meanwhile, let’s test a few of our new skills.” I nodded. “This is the perfect environment to do so, and the safest.”

  “What did you have in mind?” Aisha raised a brow at me.

  “Red String, first and foremost. You can now display the image of the map with your watch. Let’s split up and meet in the middle.” I brought up the projection between us from my device to show what I meant.

  Aisha slowly navigated through a few menus and managed to find the gallery by herself, bringing up her map between us. I planned to check if there were any simple apps that could perhaps use GPS or other sensors possibly installed in the watch to place a dot on the image and move it according to the changing position of the device.

  If there weren’t, I knew a guy who could write one for us in his free time. If the operating system wasn’t a completely unknown one—designed as it was by dwarves—that is.

  After we located our position, we nodded at each other and headed down different passages. I kept my mace ready in my right hand, just in case. I didn’t fully trust the System, not enough to believe that the caverns were completely empty. So, with the flashlight in my left hand, and the holographic map displaying from my wrist, I moved forward.

  After around ten minutes, I started focusing a little, to see if I could sense Aisha’s direction and distance or something. Surprisingly, it was childishly easy. I could clearly sense her exact location, including her direction and the distance between us.

  ~Yo. Can you feel me as clearly as I feel you?~ I asked Aisha telepathically.

  ~I felt you better half an hour ago, but this is decent too.~

  I shook my head with a wry smile at her obvious innuendo. I could practically see the smirk on her lips.

  ~I’ll take that as a yes, then.~

  Aisha chuckled in my mind. ~With a connection this strong, I’m confident in saying that neither of us will have any problem locating each other. The only issue will be finding the correct paths through this maze.~

  ~Agreed. But, the general location is already a lot. It’s going to be plenty useful not just at long range, but when fighting near each other too. Let’s try to practice this until we meet up.~

  We continued towards the center, doing exactly that. It didn’t take us long, since we obviously wanted to avoid wasting precious time, and we regrouped after another fifteen more minutes of walking. Aisha hung her axe behind her back, locking it on a metal ring, and we re-entered the ruined underground village.

  Unfortunately, the bodies of the common Kobolds had already disappeared, turning into spiritual energy. Only the Kobold Phalanxes and the Kobold Shaman still remained, lying in the exact spots where they had fallen.

  We quickly harvested their nuclei and other useful materials, before they joined their brethren in nothingness. I had already taken the Shaman’s staff and Aisha hadn’t left anything but splinters from the weapons and shields belonging to its guards, so there wasn't all that much to collect from the corpses.

  After dealing with those, we split up again, and I moved to check the rubble of what looked like the Shaman’s stone igloo while Aisha went around to search through the other rocky huts. I found some potions and mixtures we’d need to verify later, but there didn’t seem to be anything super useful or rare in it.

  Since we had some space now, we collected all the possible trash into one big backpack and shoved the armor pieces and weapons that were still in a decent state into another. Then, we stood over them and glanced at each other.

  “Should we test the summon and recall ability? Maybe it can transport equipment too,” Aisha suggested.

  “Good idea. You could try to bring more bags for the Darksteel Ore on your way back. Or even one of the storage boxes.” I nodded, rubbing my chin.

  Aisha knelt down and threw one of the packs onto her back while hugging the other one to her chest. She was damn strong. But, I already knew that.

  “Alright. Off you go.”

  I tried activating the ability mentally and a purplish formation appeared under Aisha’s feet. Her body flashed briefly with a similar violet shade, and she disappeared. The magical circle faded soon after.

  ~Can you hear me? I’m pretty sure you got out of the range of Red String,~ I called out to her, wondering if my message would reach Aisha.

  ~Loud and clear, boss. I can’t sense you now, either, but I’m back in the apartment. Both backpacks made it too. Give me a second and I’ll empty them.~

  Nodding to myself, I waited while looking around the completely devastated chamber. She had truly made a mess out of it. Fortunately, the makeshift forges and what looked like the storage the Kobolds had used for their Darksteel Ore survived my angry Berserker’s onslaught.