Chapter 59

 

Night of Day 12 since entering the gnome’s warren; dream state;

Fox Girl snaps her fingers again and a bunch of starry mana sparkles dissolve on the ceiling. Eh? Did she have star sparkles before when she released magic? She notices my wonder and smiles smugly. Of course she has her secrets so she won’t tell me. She likes being mysterious too.

As the sparkly things drip to the floor I see the gravity well open up on the wall and she grabs my hand pulling me with her. Her hand holding mine is stronger than I thought, probably stronger even than Akira’s grip. Her grip turned out to not be harsh or angry however, but just firm and comforting.

I can’t help but brush up against her from her pulling me close to avoid the gravity well’s effects. In doing so I notice that I can feel her body too well when my arm is around her hip; even though it looks like she’s wearing clothes, she feels like she isn’t. It’s a strange feeling because my eyes are lying to me but my hands aren’t. I’m afraid of what I’ll do if I’m touching her too long. It’s too good and I’ve wanted to feel warmth from others for some time.

WOW.

I better be careful.

Because it feels like I’m hanging onto a naked girl I’d better be super careful. This is seductive and intoxicating. I need to control myself.

Of course she slaps me once we are on the other side.

“I didn’t do anything!” I objected.

“I didn’t say you could feel me up,” she says. Of course she’s a bit embarrassed but not truly angry again.

I rub it off where it stings. “That’s not my fault. There was nowhere else to put my hands and I had to hang onto you,” I muttered.

As the vertigo wears off I find we are in the room with Sunghee in it.

She shakes the chains. “Finally! When we were you going to come visit me! Come here master!” She winks at me. She sticks her tongue out to tease me.

My mouth hangs open. She’s still making eyes at me.

“I tried, but I’ve been busy,” Fox Girl says. “Some problems were taking up all my time.” She nods at me.

Ouch…

But Sunghee isn’t looking at Fox Girl. She’s looking at me, “I meant Shun. Hi honey! Did you miss me? I need some love honey.”

“Eh?!”

She wiggles her shoulders and shakes her boobs. She looks better than last time. Perhaps less stress or something, or maybe she’s been able to heal a bit more. Still I don’t know how she’ll act when the chains are off. She’s been like this so long it could be pretty unpredictable. I’m worried about it.

I wave though, but stay silent.

“Oh come on, don’t be like that,” she turns to Fox Girl, “he’s playing hard to get.” She pouts.

Fox Girl has a half smile smirk on her face. “I would be more worried about your safety if I were you.”

“But Shun saved me! He’s here to help!” she says.

“Well you know, being the CEO of a prison full of hot breasty sex slaves will corrupt anyone,” Fox Girl reminded her raising an eyebrow.

“Whose side are you on?” I scowled at her.

“Yeah I know right!” Sunghee affirms her support to my side. It makes Fox snort.

“Whatever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

To my surprise Sunghee scowls more, “Actually I owe Shun my life. I’m committed to be anything he wants me to be for saving me from becoming a pig orc breeder. That’s worse than death and worse than being his concubine. I don’t mind that as a new job,” she protests.

She shrugs with her hands up. She can’t put them in another position anyway.

“I suppose that’s true,” Fox sighs.

“Concubine?” my breath is accidentally a bit sharp. Is that what she thinks her current job is? What gave her that idea?

“Listen up. We’ve got a way to get you free, but it means we’ll be trying to fight our way out of here. The box will try to eat us as soon as your shackles are off,” Fox Girl says.

Gulp*

“Shit!” I swore aloud.

Sunghee scowls. “What? I wanted to consummate our marriage yet. That’s too bad.”

“Eh? Marriage?! I don’t know if I’m…also I have someone else,” I protest.

Sunghee is a bit surprised at first. “Uh, that’s OK, I’m willing to share. I kind of expected it actually. Most of the powerful heroes in this world have large harems anyway. But I would like to get the chains off, master. Please!” she tries to bat her eyes at us.

“R-really?”

“Of course! I did some homework on a few of them already!” she replied.

“Hey knock it off you two. Get serious!” Fox warns showing her angry looking sharp teeth.

“So Fox Girl, how do we do this?” I ask trying not to stare at Sunghee. It’s a battle that I’m losing at the moment.

She suddenly produces a sparkling white key with an extravagant design from the sleeves of her robes. She hands it to me carefully. “Make sure you hurry. Once you start the dungeon mode will start to activate. It won’t be pretty. You won’t be able to focus on anything other than staying moving as soon as this starts. You can’t stop for anything. We’ll have to run as soon as Sunghee can walk.”

“That’s not good; won’t her legs be sore from being pinned down?” I ask.

Sunghee shook her head, “I’ll be OK until I try to leave the box permanently. That’s when it’s going to be the worst. I won’t feel anything until then. Also actually I just can’t move but I’m not in a position that will hurt.”

Still, it will be totally weird having a naked party member. Oh wait…then I remember I have the stored clothes in my item box. I’d already prepared for this. I also ready my weapons first. Dang; I was also feeling conflicted too. If only I had ‘forgotten’ the extra stored clothes.

Well I can’t really get the clothes on her anyway with the chains in the way...

Sunghee whistles, “I like that axe. Can I try it?” She’s staring at my weapon with a sort of obsessed look on her face.

“Not sure if it’s safe for her to have a weapon yet,” I whisper to Fox under my breath.

“That’s the weapon I use,” I said more loudly to Sunghee. “But maybe we can find something else to let you use.”

“Please do.”

“She can’t turn against the user of the box because of the slave collar enchantment. So you don’t need to worry,” Fox Girl says. She seems tired still and momentarily closes her eyes. I can see she’s still pretty tired and trying to resist nodding off.

Did the box give her a narcoleptic condition?

I get one of the white uniform blouses out and a miniskirt uniform that goes with it, plus the tennis shoes. I don’t have socks or underwear though at the moment. I place them near Sunghee while getting the key ready. Of course it wouldn’t have done her any good to give her the clothes earlier because the manacle chains on her arms and legs wouldn’t have a way to be worked around from.

“Are you guys ready?” I ask, catching my breath. While we can I take a moment to gather both my courage and get a good chance to psyche myself up. According to Fox Girl it seems as soon as I start to unchain her all hell will break lose.

I realize I’m sweating from all the stress. It doesn’t feel good.

As I’m about to put the key in the manacle Sunghee speaks up, “why are you helping us anyway?”

“Why wouldn’t I help you?” I said back to her.

“Well pardon my selfishness but you didn’t come back to rape me or have your way with me. And you are now unchaining me. I’m just surprised by that,” she says.

I shrug not saying anything.

I try not to look at her. I know she’s looking right at me. I’m also very afraid I won’t be able to resist temptation if I look at her because Sunghee has beautiful porcelain like flawless skin with no blemish and a chiseled slim athletically toned dancer’s body with big boobs; just not as big as Asakura’s or Ayumi Sensei’s. They have a nice full looking shape and spread though.

It takes all my willpower…

I have to remind myself to breathe. I also tighten and clench my fingers to get a grip on myself.

“I’m really tempted…” I mumble.

“So are you really going forward?” Fox Girl is getting anxious.

“I guess it’s now or never,” I said.

“Before you go, I need a weapon. Let’s solve that first,” Sunghee says.

“I have no idea how fast the box will react,” Fox’s voice says in a strange lilt.

Carefully I move up by Sunghee’s head. I place the dwarven war hammer in one of her hands, the one I’m about to unlock first.

“Wait. I fight with two weapons. Got anything else,” she pleads.

“Hmm.” I check the box. The only things I have left are some small time orc weapons that aren’t as reliable. I hand her an orc dagger I’d salvaged and saved. It’s not that great of material. It could break if against the impact of a heavy weapon or something metal. But everything else in there is also an orc dagger or an orc spear. I have no idea when I may have need of the others.

“Haha!” Sunghee is overjoyed though. I lay it next to the clothes.

“Hope you two are ready for a really big shit storm,” Fox Girl says dully. She yawns like it’s nothing. I realize she’s acting like someone who is narcoleptic rather than having a lot of confidence.

So I slip the key in the manacle bracelet of Sunghee’s right hand. As soon as I turn the key there’s the sound of something really big grinding outside of the room. It’s a deep and ominous “Oh shit!” type of sound.

“I …don’t like the sound of that,” I said already distracted.

“Hurry, don’t stop! Hurry!” Sunghee’s eyes are shining like this is the happiest day of her life.

If you think about it’s been a long time since she’s been free. Although this isn’t technically free yet, it’s a really good sign. So of course she’d be happy.

I nearly fumble in my desperation while the other two are pleading for me to hurry. Our desperation is mounting as we can feel tremors in the dream space that we’re currently standing in.

As soon I as I release the second manacle the both of them are squealing like they just won a lottery. They’re both insanely happy. Fox’s normally serious face is strangely happy like Sunghee’s.

Oh yeah, that’s right. She probably thinks that means it’s a higher chance I’ll let her go too now? But it’s not quite the same thing.

But I’m not as happy as they are…

As soon as the second manacle was released the grinding intensified significantly. Instead of it sounding like just the one wall has something grinding and really big on it now the other wall sounds like it’s got something just like it and both the two are really loud.

As I move down to her feet Sunghee grips the orc knife in her teeth and uses her hands to put her arms in the sleeves of the blouse and then picks up the dwarven war hammer. She’d had to hurry so fast to get the shirt on and be able to react to danger though, that she’s not done up the buttons on the white blouse yet.

I’m getting scared though and my hands are shaking. It sounds too good to be true. I think it is…

I wonder what will happen when she’s finally loose. It will probably be bad…

I click the lock open with the key on the third lock releasing her right leg. The grinding intensifies and now the whole room is shaking.

“Oh damn that feels so good! Haha, I can’t believe it!” Sunghee is now openly crying for joy. She can’t calm down, but has picked up the miniskirt. She puts one leg through the skirt, but has to wait for me to finish.

“Hurry! This is bad. I didn’t release how hungry this box is!” Fox Girl exclaims while looking around. Around us the ceiling seems to be dropping off chunks that are falling. Now we have to dodge crap that’s falling down and it’s hard for me to even stay on my feet.

I trip trying to grip at her left leg but manage to hang onto both her shin and the key. But my legs have collapsed out from under me as everything is being shaken so terribly. Even Fox Girl can’t stay on her feet. It’s a strange weird feeling and somehow there seems like a tinge of vertigo.

“Hurry! Please don’t leave me! Don’t leave me Shun! I’ll do anything please! I want to go with you!” Sunghee calls out.

Somehow after fumbling around for a half a minute of being shaken to death I manage to get the key in. But it’s almost like the bed is bouncing me up and down now. It’s hard to not touch her in unnecessary places as I’m bounced near her.

“Arrrgh!” I’m frustrated. Things are shaking so much I got the key in crooked. I also have a bunch of rocks hit my back, but they aren’t big enough to hurt me much. But it feels sore there, like I’ve got little cuts.

Finally I fumble the key some more as the whole room’s shaking is doubled.

“Oh shit! If this keeps up we’re going to die if you don’t get that lock open!” Fox Girl swears with big eyes. She’s looking all around and on all fours just to keep her balance some of the time.

Finally I get the key in and the lock opens.

Sunghee deftly flicks her left leg through the miniskirt and pulls it up. Then she puts the dwarven war hammer tucked into her skirt’s waist just as we start falling.

It seems the floor has collapsed.

We find ourselves falling and screaming like crazy. Somehow Sunghee avoids stabbing me while thrashing around. I also barely kept hold of the axe but I’m scared shirtless over what we are going to fall into.

It feels like we’re falling for a long time.

Gulp*

Are we going to die?

Shit!

I was so close to making Sunghee my woman too. She was totally like hoping to reward me…