Dungeons Online

"Go back?" Claudia froze when she heard those words. Then, instead of following with the steamy movements of Tom, she caught his hand and held it in place. "Why?" she asked, not wasting her time to elaborate on the question. 

"Isn't it obvious?" Tom shrugged, surprised by the girl's reaction. "Right now, we are severely understaffed. How else can we hope to force our way into a damned battlefield if not by getting more people and equipment for that?"

For a moment, Claudia simply stared down Tom's eyes, as if she couldn't believe what he had just said. Then, she let go of his hand and rested her head back at the pillow on the bed. 

"What?" Tom asked, puzzled by the voiceless reaction of the girl. "If you have something to say, then just do it," he suggested in a light voice, trying his best not to be pushy at all. 

"Try to think about what you said a moment ago," Claudia said before rolling her eyes. "We need people, and we need equipment to force our way through the warzone," she reiterated Tom's words. "Tell me, where in this sentence is there any reason to go back home?" she asked, putting a light smile on her lips. 

"I guess..." Tom hesitated for a moment before breathing out and allowing his head to fall right on the girl's chest. For some reason, having his face surrounded by her warmth made it easier for him to think. 

'That's actually a good point,' Tom thought, calming himself down to the point where his usual analytic self could claim his mind once again. 'Less for the people, we can easily get some proper equipment in this town. What's more, there ought to be some way to get to other cities without risking everything on the journey,' he thought, bitting Claudia's nipple instead of his lips. 

"Ah, stop it!" she protested with a chuckle, yet her hands have yet to even attempt pushing Tom's head away. "Nothing will come out no matter how hard you try!" she chuckled when Tom changed his tactic. 

"I know," Tom said, ceasing his tease. "And I think I know what we should do now," he added, letting go of the girl's breast and prompting himself up on the bed. 

"It's nice to see you regain your motivation," Claudia said with a smile before pulling herself up as well. "What do you command, my lord?" she asked with a small chuckle. 

"For now, we need to figure out what kind of useful stuff can we buy in this city," Tom said, reaching for his own clothes as he started to dress up. Even though they were in the middle of ars flagranti a moment earlier, after all the time he wasted being depressed, he was unwilling to let go of this thin strand of motivation he found. "Then, we will dive deep into the dungeon again," he added, pulling his pants up. 

"Dungeon?" Claudia asked as her eyes opened wide in surprise. "What for? I thought we gave up on the idea of rushing home for now?" she pointed out, grabbing and the edge of the duvet to cover her chest up. 

"We are not returning yet," Tom said, shaking his head. "But we need to get stronger ourselves first, even if it will feel like grinding," he added before grabbing and then passing Claudia's shirt to her hand. "Once we both get one more skill, we will start to gather all the stones we will be able to," he added before sitting down on a nearby chair. 

"Reaching for the next skill I can understand," Claudia said, pulling the shirt back on her upper body. "Since that's the only way to measure out general level. To be honest, I still have some hopes that the guild cards we will receive tomorrow will somehow fix that problem. Having a precise measurement of our strenght would make it easier to grind," she said as a dreamy smile surfaced on her face. 

'That's a gamer girl for you,' Tom thought, not bothering to hide the small smile of his. "Still, from how you formed your words, I assume there is something that you, in turn, do not understand, right?" he said, sending a nudge to the girl's side. 

"Yeah," Claudia nodded her head as she finally stood up from the bed, fully dressed. "Grinding for our own strenght, I can understand. But what's the point of doing it even when we won't be able to realistically progress any further?" she asked.

Her objection, even if not voiced out, was simple. Just like grade one stones would lose their effectiveness once one reaches a certain threshold of strenght, the same rule would apply to the grade six stones. With how the local dungeon could only produce up to grade six mana stones, there was a certain soft cap to how strong they could become. 

That's why there was no point at all in grinding once one would reach that soft cap. Rather than wasting months if not years just to forcibly push one's strenght by a single level, changing the dungeon for one with a higher cap seemed like a better idea. 

"Even if we find some tools, even if we find some people locally to help us, crossing the warzone will still be a massive danger," Tom said, grabbing Claudia's hand and pulling her out to the corridor. "That's why the only way to realistically bring our strenght up is to help others get stronger as well in exchange for their loyalty," Tom said, pushing open the doors to the room where he left the three slaves of his before. 

"My lord," the trio stood up in an instant as if sitting on the bed or chair was sin for a slave when their owner was standing. 

"At ease," Tom waved his head, unable to be bothered with such useless formalities. "I came here with a question to the three of you," he said before grabbing the edge of one of the chairs and sitting down in it. 

"Speak your mind, my lord," the burly man said, falling on one knee. Ever since they experienced Tom's first request and his reaction to their answer, the attitude of the trio somewhat changed. 

'Maybe they no longer consider me a powerful idiot who likes to throw his strenght around, but a careful tactician who simply won against them?' Tom thought before pushing this idea to the back of his head. 'For now, it doesn't matter,' he thought, focusing his eyes on the trio again. 

"I came here with one order that I forgot to give to all three of you beforehand. Only once it's out of the way, I will be able to speak my mind," Tom said before leaning forward. 

In response to his words, both the girl and the scrawny archer fell to their knees as well, ready to receive the order. Yet, from how stiff this action looked, it was clear that it was enforced by their slave status rather than their own will. 

"From now on until the end of your days, you will speak no word to anyone about the knowledge I will share, about my or Claudia's origin," Tom said, carefully picking his words. "You will refuse to hint at any information you will learn from me, nor will you give any clues about anything you guess from my actions, words, or intentions to anyone else," he said as he stood up. 

For a moment, Tom just remained in the spot, staring down at the lowered heads of the trio. Then, with a huge sigh, he reached out to his pocket only to pull out a grade six stone, one of the few that he and Claudia actually saved from their last trip to the dungeon. 

"All the wealth that I currently possess comes from selling a single grade five stone at the guild. What you have before your eyes is a grade six stone," Tom said, rubbing the stone with the cloth that he used to hold it in the first place. After all, even outside of the dungeon, just touching the stone would be enough to absorb it. 

"Sir?" the scrawny archer was the first to raise his head. While his widened pupils proved how shocking this sight was for him, he dared not to utter a single, spare word. 

"This is just the first out of the many stones I'm willing to offer to you. But for that, you need to make a pledge," he said, digging deeply into the few bits of information the guild master passed to him about slavery before. 

For the battle slaves like the trio before him, there were strict rules and stipulations of what their owner was allowed to make them do. Once Tom's wishes would go above, and beyond those rules, there would be no compelling force behind them. The same would apply to all the orders of his once the slave status of the trio would be lifted. 

The only way to make sure they wouldn't speak a word of the things he was willing to show them even after returning to the free part of the society was to make them pledge their word on it. 

In a sense, a pledge was similar to slavery in how it had a compelling power on the pledging party. Contrary to slavery, though, it was something that could be imposed only on oneself. As such, it was free from the restraint of the maximum slavery term and would be in effect for as long as the party pledged to wouldn't acknowledge its end. 

"Sir, what do you want us to do if we actually make the pledge?" The scrawny archer asked, proving to be the actual brains of the party. 

"I have no need for mindless and rebellious slaves," he said as he placed the stone on the table without a care in the world. "Right now, you have a choice," Tom said, sitting back on the deep chair and cupping his hands together. "You can remain slaves like you are right now. Once you gather all the information there is about the two people I asked before, I will fulfill my promise and set you free," Tom announced, proving that he wasn't about to go back on his earlier word. 

"Sir, from the way you said it, it's clear that there is another option," this time, it was the girl who spoke up. She even dared to raise her head and look at Tom, yet only to move it right back down when she saw the determination in the young man's eyes. "I humbly request you to enlighten us," she said, slightly trembling once she lowered her head. 

"The other option is for you to become my followers. Soldiers whose loyalty I won't ever need to doubt," Tom said in a calm voice. Then, he closed his eyes for a moment, only to open them a few seconds later. "Soldiers, that I will deem worthy of my thrust to the point of bringing your strenght as high as possible."