Waiting in Dulyr for Wally, Thera and I passed the time by sitting up on the upper deck of the town’s tavern. There really was nothing like sitting there and looking out over the water, hearing people full of excitement as they caught fish, occasionally seeing an Easter egg monster with a very long neck pop out from the center of the lake, and it was always great seeing new players stare at Thera. After all, her race wasn’t available at character creation. Most new players likely had no idea it was possible for a player character to become her race, but there she was, sitting around enjoying a cup of virtual tea with me. Well, she wasn’t sitting so much as she was lying down. There were no chairs nor benches large enough for her many legs and abdomen, so she had to rest the bottom of her spider half down on the deck if she wanted to “sit.”

Some of the new players might also have been checking her out because of her tits – well, and the rest of her beauty. There were probably many people who never would have considered finding a spider attractive, but when they saw Thera, that changed.

It helped that her upper half was that of a beautiful woman with a large bust.

“We should go fishing sometime,” I proposed.

Thera lifted an eyebrow. “And why is that?”

“Because. Fishing is the true endgame.”

“I am surprised to hear you do not believe perverse acts involving monsters and tendrils is the true endgame.”

“That’s the ultimate endgame which, of course, is better than the true endgame.”

“I see. Does that mean one must first excel in fishing before reaching monsters and tendrils?”

“Well, the fishing part can be skipped if you’re pro enough. I should really go fishing more.”

“Hunting is much more entertaining.”

“You only say that because you have webs. I don’t even see how it’s fun when you just put traps everywhere.”

“Successfully trapping prey is incredibly satisfying. Speaking of which, your prey has arrived.”

I turned my head and saw him standing in the doorway, already looking fed up with whatever we wanted him for.

Wally looked me up and down before sighing. “I know who you are, so why are you pretending to hide yourself?”

All he saw when looking at me was a black robe covering me from head to toe. It was just a plain, boring, black robe that even hid my face from him. More importantly, I could tell that he was already frustrated because of it. “Is something wrong with it? I’m trying out a new look.”

“It looks horrendous, yes.”

As for Wally, he had his usual short and styled hair with thin glasses decorating his petite facial features, white gloves on his hands, and an outfit that made him look like a hipster at a fancy dinner party.

There was no easier way to describe it. I specialized in taking clothes off, after all, not putting them on. The basics of fashion were enough for me.

“Anyways, I—”

“I have no interest in what you have to say until you remove that foolish outfit.”

“Aw, come on, Wally. It’s not that ugly, is it?”

“It is. I do not wish to deal with somebody playing games.”

“But we’re all playing games. I mean, that’s kind of the whole point.”

“You – you know what I mean!”

“You’re too easy to tease.”

“Do you want me to leave right now?”

“Alright, I’ll stop. I’ve had enough fun.”

Taking it easy on him, I removed the robe and revealed something else.

Something that, to many players, was horrifying.

All I had on was a subligar.

 A tight, metal cup secured around my waist by leather was the only thing that I had on.

Wally’s face turned pure red as I heard a rare laugh escape Thera’s lips from behind. She had no idea what I had on under the robe. Unfortunately, when I looked back at her, she had a hand over her mouth and was looking away.

“Pu-put the robe back on! Right now!” Wally ordered.

“But I thought you wanted me to take it off, Wally?”

“I – my name is not – do – put it on!”

Despite how flustered he was, he didn’t bother looking away. Instead, his eyes remained looking in my direction. Especially down lower. He even stopped complaining after a few seconds, not realizing what direction his eyes were spending so much time looking at.

That was when I put the robe back on, bringing him back to virtual reality.

“Alright, I did what you want, Daddy,” I said.

“That – that is even worse than the other name!”

“Man, you’re really hard to please, Wally.”

“Just… what do you want?”

“I’m sure Thera already filled you in on the deta—”

“No, darling,” Thera interjected. “I simply told him that you had business with him and he was quick to come for a visit.”

“I – I have a reputation as a crafter to uphold!” Wally claimed.

None of us bought it, himself included.

After a bit more teasing since I wasn’t able to resist, we sat down at the table and Thera finally started looking our way again.

Wally crossed his arms over his chest. “Well? What do you want?”

“I got a drop from Xanax. A drop that requires a Mana Tamer to make something fun out of it.” I opened up a crafting window to show him it.

Similar to how a trading window could be opened, it was possible to open crafting windows with people. It prevented scamming the materials from somebody and then not crafting what they wanted by allowing one party to put up the items and the other party to craft using those items without ever having them in their inventory. It was a very convenient system. Furthermore, it allowed crafting under unique conditions. The appropriate recipes wouldn’t have been available if I just handed him the item since they could only be accessed by a dungeon master. The trade window allowed him to access the item and any recipes unique to dungeon masters since I was – well, a dungeon master.

“You should have opened with this,” Wally said. He was much more interested after seeing what I had in mind for him. “I’ll have to visit my storage to get the materials… but I believe I have everything I need to make this.”

“You’re the best. What’s the price?”

“A favor. None of the materials this requires are rare nor expensive. Pocket change to me, really. That is why all I will charge is a favor. I do not know when I when use the favor and I do not know how I will use it, but you will owe me a favor. Do we have a deal?”

“Ah, I see what’s going on here. You’re going to hold this favor against me and use it for lewd things, aren’t you? You’re going to tell me that I owe you a favor, and then you’re going to demand that I come visit you in the room of some inn while wearing nothing but a subli—”

The trade window closed.

Wally was already walking away. “I’m going to go get what I need. You owe me.”

“You’re not saying no to the lewd thing.”

“No.”

Wally went out of sight.

“Dang. Thera, he said no.”

Thera sighed. “I heard, darling.”

“What’s going to happen to my fantasy of owing somebody a favor and then having to do lewd things for them?”

“Would you like to owe me a favor?”

“Are you going to use it for perverted things?”

“No.”

“Damn. Wait, don’t you owe me some favors still?”

Thera tapped the side of her head. “I believe I do, yes.”

“Huh. Then I’ll owe you a favor so that you can use the favor to cancel the favors you owe me.”

“That seems like a rather convoluted method of saying I no longer owe you any favors.”

“You’re not wrong. Anyways, let’s see. What do I need that will make me owe you? Wait, I’ve got it. Here.” I placed my hand down on the table. “Lift my hand for me. I don’t feel like doing it myself.”

Thera’s lips threatened to curl as she reached out to play along, lifting my hand.

“Wow, thanks, Thera. You saved me. I guess I owe you a huge favor now. Whatever will you do with it?”

“I wonder. Perhaps I should use it to cancel the favors I owe you?”

“That does sound like it would be a pretty good idea.”

“Perhaps. Though, I believe I would rather hold onto it. I may find a better use for it some other time.”

“That would – wait, what?”

“You said you owe me a ‘huge favor’ now. That sounds like something awfully useful to hold onto, would you not say so?”

“I’ve been scammed. Oh no. I wonder if you might potentially use this new, huge favor that I owe you to do all sorts of—”

“You may fantasize as much as you want, and I will remain obligated to reject such fantasies.”

“You know me so well.”

Wally returned a short time later with everything that he needed. After that, all I had to do was open up the crafting window with him, grant him permission to use the drop from my inventory, and then he got to crafting.

He didn’t even need to use any of his fancy crafting skills to finish the product. Not only was it light on materials, but it was light on work. I felt a bit bad about not paying him anything, but I could see why he didn’t care about charging me for the work. A favor was worth more whatever the material cost would be on his end.

“There you go. A trap for a favor,” Wally said. “I am ready to redeem the favor.”

Hearing that surprised me. “Already? You must be impatient for—”

“The favor is this: whenever you need any other exotic recipes such as this crafted, come to me. I will craft all of them free of charge.”

“That… sounds like a pretty one-sided favor and not exactly in your, you know, your favor.”

“Think of it as a partnership instead. The title I am trying to get requires me to craft exotic recipes such as this one. Given that there is no easy way of unlocking them and that they require rare drops from raids in most cases, I have not been able to make much progress with the title. You are only allowed to come to me and, in exchange, I will craft you whatever exotic recipes you need. Do we have a deal?”

There was the catch. He wanted me to only use him. To go to another crafter for any exotic recipes would be to betray our deal and the favor that I owed him. Even though there would be no easy way for him to track that, I still had every intention of keeping my word.

“Deal, partner,” I answered, holding my hand out for a shake.

As flustered as Wally could get, he never faltered when it came to business. He gave my hand a firm grasp and shake.

“Thanks, Wally. I look forward to working with you. For now, I’ve got a fun new toy to go add to my dungeon.”

“Not that there was the ability to make a high-quality version of it, but I assure you that it will perfectly serve whatever intentions you may have for it. And, once more, my name is not Wally.”

“Alright, Yllaw.”

“Wha-what kind of name is that supposed to be?”

“Wally backwards.”

“How did you – how did you even pronounce that?”

“I’m good with my mouth.”

There were many potential implications with that statement. Whichever implication is the one that popped into Wally’s head, it caused him to turn red while looking at my mouth.

He was so much more obvious than he realized. But, as fun as it was to tease him, I wasn’t going to make him uncomfortable.

After that, we parted our ways and I returned to the dungeon with Thera and my new trap. It seemed like she was every bit as curious to how it would work as I was, so she stayed by my side as I looked around inside of the dungeon for the perfect spot to put it.

If it behaved like I was hoping it would, it definitely wasn’t the type of trap to put right at the front of the dungeon. It also had the potential to seriously help my monsters out if they were ever attacked or for, of course, lewd things.

Adding it in a spot that would help the goblins felt… redundant. It was the same with Captain Consentacles and, as I found out, I was not allowed to add any traps inside of the boss room where Lephacoda was.

There was only one option left.

“Al Capra, I’m giving you a new trap to work with. I think you and it will make a pretty good combination until I can find something more appropriate to pair it up with.”

“Got it, boss,” Al Capra answered, as stoic and serious as ever.

I really wanted a section of the dungeon themed and dedicated to traps such as this, and potentially monsters that would thematically work alongside it, but that would take more time. Until then, Al Capra was the only one alone and without any tentacles, so I figured that he could use a little bit of help.

The trap was placed down right behind the corner that leads into his stretch of the cave. A dark, purple mist glowed in a circle where I put it. The mist then slowly faded away until only a barely noticeable outline of purple was left. Opening up the “Trap Management” window that I had made it clearly visible again and even gave me the option to trigger it in a test just to see what it was capable of.

Naturally, I pressed the option to test it.

It was perfect.

With crossed arms and a smile on my face, I asked, “What do you think, Thera?”

“I think… that the boss likely never intended for one of his items to be used in this manner,” she answered. “It does look like it will be effective, though.”

“How about you, my goat-like friend?”

“I think it will help me out, boss. I can attack the enemies while the trap—”

“Hey, remember, sex first. Attacking is only for when we’re under attack. You’re going to be using this trap for sex more than for fighting.”

“Right. Got it, boss. Sorry about that.”

“It’s all good,” I said and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Now, since Lily isn’t online, we just have to wait for somebody else to come and try this out.”

Ace_Arriande

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