“She’s still going,” Logan said in something approaching amazement. “She’s going to give us tier two entirely by herself.”

Aseri’s eyebrows were raised. “Honestly, I feel like we should give her the chest. She’s earned it.”

“That doesn’t break any kind of … protocol?”

“Protocol?” She shot him an amused look. “It’s your dungeon, Logan.”

“Yeah, but.” He paused. “Then, I mean, sure. Like you said, she deserves it. She’ll be walking wrong for a week after this.”

Dungeon chests. They had been one of the other crucial unlocks that Aseri had insisted on before they broke into the surface. While adventurers would likely delve a dungeon simply for the better experience rates, a dungeon that was stingy with loot would obviously be less popular.

Fueling the chests wasn't cheap. Even the tier zero one had taken a thousand mana, and the tier one, four thousand. So giving away four thousand mana, effectively for free, seeing how they didn’t need to give Luna the chest, might be frivolous. The gracious signal of appreciation might not be worth it. But seeing how Aseri had been the one to suggest it, who was usually such a practical woman … it emphasized how much the eager blonde elf deserved it.

And there were pragmatic reasons to do so, too. It would encourage adventurers to let themselves be used well and thoroughly, knowing that if their performance—even after defeat—was stellar, then they could receive conciliation rewards.

Luna’s exhaustion was making itself apparent now. She’d been through six or seven shaking orgasms, and her limbs were sluggish as she tried to pleasure her invaders. Logan could tell her heart—or at least her body—wasn’t in the game anymore. 

That’s enough. Logan called off the goblins, mentally, and they fled.

Luna lay in a pile of sweat and semen. Almost every inch of her body was covered by the white stuff. Her hair was a mess, and she lay collapsed on the floor, heaving in exhaustion. A few paces away, her robe and undergarments lay in a pile, having been torn off by the goblins after Aseri had defeated her. 

Luna rolled over and struggled to her knees and hands, and Logan felt a brief pang of sympathy—she really seemed spent, however enthusiastically she’d been engaging in her own violation. Her eyes scanned the empty boss room, clearly confused on why she’d been left alone. Her attention snagged on the undefended loot chest, and she hesitated.

“Is that …” she said. “Are you letting me?”

Logan supposed the gesture was a bit unclear. He allocated a job, mentally, in that inexplicable way he was becoming so accustomed to, and a goblin jogged out from one of the hidden access points. He gripped the chest handle, pulling it toward Luna. Luna sat back on her ass, confused, and surprised at the goblin’s reappearance.

He left her alone after bringing the chest within a few steps of her.

“Oh,” Luna said. “Um. That’s a yes. Thank you.”

Logan laughed.

“What?” Aseri asked.

“Nothing. It’s just funny. She’s so polite.”

Aseri gave him an odd look, but didn’t say anything.

 

Luna staggered to her feet and started collecting her belongings. Logan would be lying if he didn’t admit that seeing the beautiful young elf cover up her very impressive body was a bit of a tragedy. Especially once the mage robes went on.

“I really don’t deserve this …” she looked around the room, hesitating before unlatching the chest. “I know you can’t understand me, but, um. Thank you. You’re … pretty much the best dungeon ever.”

Logan laughed, again.

“What?” Aseri asked.

Logan shrugged. “She’s funny. And her reactions are cute.”

“How?”

“Best dungeon ever?”

“Logan, what are you talking about?”

“Luna. What she’s saying.”

Aseri stared at him. Her brow furrowed. “Are you … implying you can understand her?”

“I mean, she’s far away, but she’s not that hard to hear.” The boss encounter room was large, and poorly lit; he and Aseri were hugging the shadows, standing near one of the secret egress points. “You can’t?” He’d thought Aseri had better senses than him.

“I can hear her just fine,” Aseri said. “But it’s gibberish. Like all topsider languages.”

“What?” Now it was Logan’s turn to be confused. “She speaks—” she speaks what? English? That couldn’t be true. Now that he thought about it, whatever language he was talking in now must not be English. It must be something to do with his transmigration, allowing himself to speak and understand the local languages. “Huh. What language are we speaking?”

Aseri had come to terms with Logan’s strange claims to otherworldliness, so she was used to him asking weird questions. “I’m not sure if it has a name. Monsters understand each other.”

“But she sounds the same as us.” He gestured at the blonde elf rifling through the chest, making delighted sounds of discovery; he wanted to pay attention to what items the chest was spitting out, because he, as the Core Avatar, hadn’t had any say in it, but his attention was grabbed by Aseri, and the confusing situation they’d uncovered. “You really can’t?”

“The Barrier prevents communication,” Aseri said. “At least for something as direct as language. Even those murals you set up at the entrance, I was surprised to see work. I half expected the Barrier to scrub them away.”

“You never mentioned that.”

“It was irrelevant. And common knowledge.” She raised her hand to interrupt him. “Which I’m trying to avoid taking for granted, considering your circumstances, but it’s a hard habit to kick, assuming that you know things like ‘gravity pulls down’.”

Fair. “I can understand her.”

“Or do you think you can?” Her voice was careful, reserved.

“I’m not crazy, Aseri.”

She was quiet for a while. “I don’t know what to think. Like I said, you don’t seem like a crazy person. But it doesn’t make any sense. You’re saying the Barrier doesn’t apply to you?”

He shrugged.

“The implications would be … staggering. If you could speak directly to topsiders.”

“Should I go test it?”

Aseri hesitated. “There’s two outcomes. One, you reveal a secret to her—your ability to understand topsiders—that should definitely be kept hidden until we consider the implications. Or two, you walk out, reveal yourself as the Avatar, reveal that a demon is running this dungeon, and only to babble at her and not be understood. It’s a lose-lose.”

Yeah. That makes sense. There was Aseri’s analytical mind showing through. Not that anything she’d said was groundbreaking, but it demonstrated how she was always churning over the implications of their actions. It was why he trusted her decisions when it came to dungeon management. He really had gotten lucky receiving her for his second in command. And for more ways than one, he thought, remembering her stroking hands just a half-hour prior.

“Then I guess I won’t test it,” Logan said. “Not yet. But I can understand her.”

“What did she say?”

“That she knows we don’t understand her, but she thanks us. And that we’re the ‘best dungeon ever’.”

An intake of air had him refocusing on Luna, who had pulled a flowing white robe from the chest. She stared at it with wide eyes.

[

Robes of Quick Focus
Rare. Unbound.
+5 DEF
+2 INT
+1 MAG
Spell-Alacrity II: Provide moderate speed increase to spell formation.

[ 

By Luna’s reaction, it was an impressive piece of equipment, at least compared to what she’d expected to find. She clutched it to her chest and squealed in excitement. “Thank you so much! This is so much better than mine. Seriously, this is the best day ever.”

“What is she saying?” Aseri asked. Logan wasn’t sure what to make of the sideways, studying look she was giving him.

“Thanking us, again. That they’re better than her current robes, and that this is the ‘best day ever’.”

“Well,” she said. “If you’re making things up, you’re going over the top.” She paused. “Though, I guess it fits. She seems over the top.” Luna bounced up and down in excitement, as if to emphasize Aseri’s point.

“I’ll make sure to come back,” Luna called out. “And, um, I’ll … I’ll bring friends.”

Aseri looked at him.

“She said she’ll come back with friends.”

“Huh,” Aseri said. “Well, that’s good news, if it’s true. More adventurers is always better.”

I’ll have to figure out a way to prove it. Though how … that could be tricky.