Rupegia

Chapter 181: Dipping our Toes – Part 2

Gods… fighting in 4D is a nightmare. The moment your opponent moves in the fourth direction, my brain just locks up. It's like you're the boss being side-stepped to death in a Souls-like game. It's so easy but also so hard.

The problem is that both our muscle memory and the intuition given by our combat skills aren't adapted to 4D, so we're starting from zero, and we instantly devolve into Grugs with clubs, just like the rest of the Lordsguard.

It's actually worse for me since even my cheats aren't adapted to this. But there's also the fact that learning how to fight in 4D will become useless the moment we get past this zone. And even if the rest of the dungeon is also all in 4D, it'll still come to an end, so any effort we put into this zone will lose all its value when we're done.

Really, fuck this dungeon. They're deliberately trying to slow us down in the most annoying ways possible.

But the joke's on them! I love the challenge! Do you hear me?! I FUCKING LOVE AN INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGE!

I'M GOING TO FUCK THIS CHALLENGE LIKE I FUCK MY WIVES EVERY DAY AND EVERY NIGHT!

"RAAH!" I growl as I pummel Hana.

She fails to parry my wooden sword as it slips past her in the fourth dimension, then stabs her in the ribs, hitting her so hard that she moans loudly in ecstasy.

This is still within her expectations, though, as the specialty of her [Tatesomu Style] is fighting while wounded. So she does the same as I did and just moves her sword a little bit in the fourth direction, confusing my brain and slipping past my guard.

But. I'm. Fucking. Angry. And I refuse to lose!

I use [Muscle Explosion] to grab the blade with my clawed hand, then crush it with my fist and immediately turn it into a left hook punch right at Hana's jaw.

"HAHN…!" she moans even louder as her body twists from the hit, but she remains standing, and she still has half a sword in her hand.

A blur approaches my face, and I decide to hit it with my horns instead of dodging away, which actually seems to surprise Hana, who grins gorgeously at my daringly draconic behavior. But she gets too distracted to follow up, so I press my tail against the ground to increase my stability, then kick her away with the sole of my foot, sending her flying.

She's already used to this sort of thing, so she just spins in the air as she summons her wings, then lands on her feet like a fucking cat. But when she stands up, she notices that her training shirt has been ripped, and a small cut on her belly starts to bleed, both made by my foot claws. If she didn't have strong dragonkin skin, the wound would've been much deeper.

Then she suddenly rips off her shirt, freeing her glorious balloon tits, but I throw her a new one from my "Items," so she obediently cages the enthralling, jelly-like pair again.

I look to the side and see everyone staring at her, but the Lordsguard are smart enough to instantly return to the training, while the four Earthlings seem stunned. Urmeie also stares, but she's already shameless, so I just ignore her.

"It's impolite to stare, Lily," I tease cheekily.

"Oh, fuck you," she grumbles back, low enough that the Lordsguard doesn't hear.

"I'm happy I saw tits before I saw cock," Samkelo remarks from the sidelines, mildly amused.

So I huskily offer, "I can show it to you, if that's what you want." And the girls squeak internally as their gay fetish gets tickled.

"NO! Stop!" Lily desperately begs before little Sam can answer. She's too loud, though, and attracts raised and curious eyebrows.

With all eyes on us, Hana's fetish for attention inspires her to seductively suggest, "Why don't you loosen up, too?"

And that severely annoys Lily. "You're all fucking sex pests."

"But you're putting yourself in the way of our flirting," Yunia calmly points out, her pair of blue jewels staring sternly, legitimately annoyed that the cinnamon loli interrupted her fetish from being fed.

Lily doesn't want to argue about this, though, so she tries to deflect, "Take this shit seriously for a second, please."

"We are, but flirting is allowed when we're resting," Roxanne cheekily points out.

"I'm not resting," the angry loli angrily grumbles.

"No, you were staring at my tits," Hana calmly ripostes.

And that makes Lily even angrier, for some reason. "I'm not gay! Fuck off!"

She's starting to get too rude, so Ciel loudly clears her throat and stops this before she can anger the Lordsguard, "That's enough. Let's not bully her too hard, hm?"

But even that ticks Lily off. She's likely feeling like a little girl being protected by her Mom, and I know she hates that. She's a strong, independent, She-Hulk, and she needs no mommy!

Caterina also joins us along with some of her Punishers, and the Lordsguard start gushing over their "senpais." But not even the rugged Templars are immune to the extra dimension, and they also return to Grug.

But while the skill system has no previously stored knowledge about fighting in 4D, it does help by giving everyone an unbelievably fast learning rate. Then things become interesting as each person has their own different rate, so there's an upset in the "power" rankings.

"Oop! Gotcha again!" Thant taunts as he lightly pokes Lily with his dong of light.

The cinnamon loli is clearly frustrated about losing to him, so she goes for a rematch.

"Oh-ho! Got you again!" he cheekily taunts.

So she asks for another rematch.

"Hah! Touched!" he smugly shouts.

"Rematch!" Lily yells in rising anger.

"Too slow!" he taunts again, twice as smug.

"REMATCH!" Lily shouts, almost blowing a fuse.

So the smug cat boldly steps on a mine, "Even slower! Come on, old lady, you aren't that elderly yet!"

"Oof…" I grunt in second-hand pain.

"Oooh…" Roxanne coos in excitement.

"I'll fucking slap your balls, you pussy," Lily threatens with an increasingly dark tone, and Thant realizes he just pushed the bear a bit too far. "REMATCH!"

"'Pussy'?" Alissa repeats confusedly and turns to me. The word used to translate "pussy" into Andraste doesn't have the same "cat" alternate meaning.

I close off my thoughts and vaguely answer, "An animal that, when added to a different animal, creates a fox."

She narrows her eyes as she reflects for a second, seriously attempting to decode the mystery, but then she sneakily attempts to access the golems' memories, so I also block her there and isolate her mind from everyone else's.

"No cheating," I soothingly state and smile.

She pouts at me, but then she gets an idea and cutely requests, "Gify? A hand?"

The little Griffin *pop*s into existence on her shoulder and immediately directs her little glare at me.

"You know I wouldn't have actually used [Mold] on you until you gave me permission, right?" I dryly question the angry ball of feathers.

"Gih…" she attempts to deflect, but I actually hit her right in the boss' red, glowing, weak spot.

I want to make up with her, though, so I'll refrain from actually abusing her vulnerability and allow her to stubbornly remain mad at me for a little longer.

"So, no help?" Alissa tentatively asks.

"Gih!" the Griffin chirps her decision and pops out of existence.

So Alissa sighs as her ears fall adorably flat and her tail goes limp. "Alright… I'll throw the dice: a female fox."

And giggle. "Oh, that's cute, but you lack culture. The answer is 'cat.'"

But this bewilders her. "'Cat'? What?! Why?"

So I explain the joke, "A fox has the body of a dog and the mind of a cat."

And "bewildered" is upgraded to "outraged." "What?! I'm actually offended! No! We aren't… we aren't a mix of two animals! We're just-…"

Then I let the golems feed her the memes, and it suddenly clicks in her mind, but she doesn't accept it and remains silent for a moment as she desperately attempts to find a way to deny her realization.

But it's useless. She has already seen the truth.

"That's still offensive…" she quietly complains with a glare.

Then Thant suddenly flies past all of us and crashes into the wall.

"LILY!" Ciel lets out a furious shout as she runs after him, and even I get a chill, suddenly feeling like my mother just caught me being naughty. "You could've cracked his skull!" she yells, now much more controlled, then kneels before Thant and [Heal]s him. The poor cat is almost completely knocked out.

The smug loli snorts, but then she suddenly stiffens as she realizes that she might've gone a bit too far. Real life isn't a game, and getting whacked so hard that you fly away actually hurts.

And you know what? Lily is still a very self-aware person, so I guess giving She-Hulk powers to someone less qualified would've been… problematic.

But she's also a mature person, so she walks up to the cat as he slowly recovers, still a bit dizzy, and he winces when he notices her, making her stop. She suddenly grabs her arm and looks away, seemingly very embarrassed and feeling guilty, but then she moves forward again and stops before him.

"I'm sorry, Thant. That was way too much," she responsibly apologizes.

His eyes regain focus and stare at her in confusion. "Uhm… yeah. It's alright," he mumbles, still seemingly afraid of her.

Alt-Toto must've done a good job at reforming her because her tone becomes gentle, and Roxanne feels chills of delight from second-hand embarrassment. "No, it isn't. I'm the older lady here, so I'm sorry for acting so childish. Can you stand?"

"He should be fine now," Ciel flatly states and stands up.

Then Lily extends her hand and helps him stand, but it's awkward since she's so short and he's considerably tall.

"It's because of things like this that we shouldn't train hard on the day of Darkness," Ciel tiredly complains through [Bind].

Ooh, yeah, that makes sense.

Lina then manages to win against Urmeie because the Princess' learning rate seems to be rather slow, but not even the goddamn bear woman lets herself get heated up. The important thing, though, is that this confirms the pattern that the younger ones all have an easier time adapting to the 4D.

My new sparring partner, Yunia, adapts faster than me, but since I have tentacles, it isn't as obvious as it was with Lina and Thant. She also isn't interested in humiliating me, and she also enjoys getting beat up by her alpha male, so our sparring is a lot more restrained, though there's a constant sexual tension to it.

Ranged combat is a bit funky, too, so Alissa and Roxanne suffer quite a lot, but Alissa suffers much less. A lot about aiming is predicting where the target is going to be in the next second, so if you don't have a good grasp of how they're able to move, you'll have a hard time with accuracy. Nonetheless, it's still much simpler than melee combat, as you aren't constrained by the physical intricacies of your own joints and those of your opponent.

The golems are the ones who have the biggest issues in 4D. Zero growth, zero adaptability. They can adjust the trajectory of their projectiles during flight, so at least ranged combat is possible, though their accuracy still takes a noticeable hit for fast-moving targets. Melee combat, though, is completely off the table.

"Apologies, Master," Ted begins, as always.

"We're useless," Suzy follows, as always.

"So w-…"

"You're not useless," I sternly interrupt, then frown at them. "I know you're being brutally honest, but you also should be careful with your wording."

They remain silent for a moment as they quickly talk to each other through [Bind], and then the three suddenly nod at the same time.

"Apologies, Master," Ted repeats.

"In our eagerness to be useful," Suzy predictably follows.

"We forgot our emotional value," Jarn finishes.

Not perfect, but better. It seems they have trouble with not thinking of themselves as mere objects, but they might learn one day.

Then the Companions arrive, having finished their periodic meeting and status report. They all need to train, and there isn't room or equipment for everyone yet, especially since they have to share it with the Lordsguard and the Punishers, so they did a minor reorganizing.

Since Lina has adapted so well to the 4D, we send her to join the enchanters so that she can continue working on the helmet, and she happily leaves. A mommy-like Companion follows along with her as a bodyguard, briefly making Ciel jealous, but Lina is completely oblivious to the motherly charms of her guard as they're hidden under (elven wood) plate armor.

And so, we spend the rest of our afternoon training… again. Our mana runs out before our stamina, so we drink refreshing MP potions and rest or meditate quite a lot. It ends up straining our mana organs and making us sick of mana potions, but just a little bit, so it ends up being quite a chill afternoon.

Hana has been neglecting her wife a bit to seduce Caterina, but today, she makes Roxanne scream in the bath. I actually can't cum a lot since my mana organ is already strained, so no Ravaging, but I make use of my human hands to satisfy more than one woman at the same time.

Alissa smells arousal coming from Caterina, but the prudish woman doesn't give in to hedonism. Still, it triggers our sadism to see a gorgeous woman being denied release, even if it's her own doing.

Then we have dinner and rest for the evening. Gify is still avoiding nesting on my shoulder, but she's back to being a black hole for food and a constant, smirking observer of our daily adventures.

Lina is starting to feel fatigued from enchanting all day, so she gets a lap pillow from Ciel, who gives her all the headpats, and Aoi wraps her large body around them for bonus comfiness. Alissa then asks for a lute, so I give her one and a few points in the skill, and she plays a soothing tune for us.

It's actually so soothing that we go to sleep earlier than usual. Since the pigeon is still resting in our room, Gify invites it to nestle on Hana's mane-like hair, then wraps around it, and the two cutely go to sleep together.

Today is the 11th, Genn, day of Light. Now, this is a good day for anything, really. Well, maybe not torture and killing, but who knows? Maybe if you have a fetish for it, you might actually enjoy it more today.

But as for me, I wake up to an angel deepthroating my Cock, and then she squeezes it with her oiled, massive cow tits, and I paint her delicious brown skin with my white Seed.

No skill-ups since we didn't actually do much. Enchantments only increase MP, not even MPower, and it's also really hard to gain any skills related to mana when only using enchantments, so there will be little growth while we're training in the 4D room.

Then we go to the balcony for breakfast, and it's like we've entered a little slice of Heaven. Everything is so pleasantly bright and colorful, almost like there's a new shader on our eyes that's cranked up the saturation and the reflections. There are even visible Gods' rays, even though the sky is completely clear.

"Are you sure the Rapture hasn't started?" I remark in suspicion as I stare at the sky.

"'Rapchur'?" Kaatohe cutely repeats while Caterina gives me a weird look.

"Earthling things," Alissa explains to the naked cat.

"We have texts about the 'Rapture,'" Caterina suddenly chimes in, and that instantly catches Ciel's attention. "But those were deemed 'unreliable' and then sealed."

And this jogs Ciel's memories. "Ah, yes, those texts. They're unconfirmed Messages," she happily explains.

Then Caterina cautiously adds, "And they talk about… controversial topics."

Ooh…

So we take a brief dive into the world of conflicting philosophies and failed schisms. And my personal opinion is that the Human Gods became increasingly more talkative because they got tired of the humanoids deliberately misinterpreting shit.

Another mana circulation morning, and we receive reports that the fortress is now fully operational and manned, so the men are starting to patrol the perimeter as they get used to the enchantments. This means that they've explored more than we have, so I'm getting jealous.

I eagerly wait until lunchtime, and then I invite the whole crew for a meal together and suggest that we dip our toes into the dungeon.

"Sure, some excitement would be nice," Samkelo answers before Lily, irking her.

"Do we know if there are any monsters in that area?" she prudently questions.

I flash a smile and politely answer, "Nope, no sightings, but we know that the monster mage had a camera-like enchantment, so expect them to be shrewd and dangerous."

But Lily frowns and warily remarks, "Sounds like we shouldn't explore it yet."

"I'd rather it be us who takes a look than our men. We must ascertain the monster presence before a patrol goes missing," Yunia coldly states, her serious tone making the clown bite his tongue. None of us want our men to die in an ambush.

"Do you even know where to go?" Urmeie sternly questions, and I feel like her gaze is measuring us.

"Nope," I calmly answer. I won't even try to make an excuse.

"Alright, let's go," she suddenly accepts with a nod.

And Lily blinks repeatedly in disbelief as she quacks, "What?"

The bear woman grunts amusedly, seemingly expecting that reaction. "I agree with Yulania. It's safer for us to search for the enemy instead of the average soldier, and I believe we'll be fine, even with our combat capabilities lowered."

"Hard to argue against that," Thant shyly remarks.

Lina makes some adaptations to the helmet enchantment so that we can just slap it onto our normal combat helmets, and then we enter the flamboyant cathedral once again.

Ah, the creepy but still unbelievably beautiful decorations, the feast of colors, and the mind-bending architecture. This is one of my favorite dungeons, though I believe I'll get sick of it quite fast.

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