“I’ve been thinking,” Aseri said. “You should be the dungeon boss, not me.”

Logan blinked, adjusting to the sudden announcement. “Where is this coming from?”

“It makes intuitive sense that you’d produce more mana than the goblins, taking care of adventurers. Doesn’t it?”

“I guess it does.”

“You don’t want to,” Aseri guessed, looking at him. They’d been keeping constant company with each other, and had fair reads by this point. “Still?”

He frowned. “I don’t know.”

“Fucking a bunch of topsider girls doesn’t sound fun? The goblins would take care of the guys, since I’m assuming you don’t prefer … ?”

“Just girls,” he said. “Is my preference, yeah.”

“But?”

“Like I said, I don’t know. Feels weird?” And you don’t mind if I’m with other women? Obviously not. He wasn’t sure what he and Aseri had, but by Aseri’s suggestion, sex didn’t link to romance in the way his society had standardized. Which is fair. Sex wasn’t romance. Intertwined, perhaps, but not inseparably.

“Okay,” Aseri said. “I’d be kind of the world’s biggest asshole if I refused to, then said you couldn’t.”

They were quiet for a few moments.

He sighed. “I should. You’re right.”

“Not if you don’t want to.”

“I do. It’s just … a lot.”

“Not a womanizer, back in your other life?”

“How could you tell?”

Aseri smiled, then walked up and hugged him, resting her head against his shoulder. He returned it. She’s so small. Logan still hadn’t gotten used to how much larger his new body was.

“You’re really cute, you know that?” she said.

Cute. Maybe not the first word he’d like to be described as. But when she says it like that, I guess I don’t mind that much. 

“I’ll do it,” Logan said. “Need to, eventually. No getting around it.”

“How noble. You’ll fuck an endless parade of topsiders. It must be such a challenge.”

He almost responded, ‘so could you’. But the words died in his mouth. Aseri might not mind him fucking other people, but he would mind if she did. That made him a hypocrite, and he knew it did. But it also didn’t change the gut reaction.

“Yeah, well. Selfless. That’s me.” It was a lame response, but he’d had to edit it mid-way through.

Aseri snorted, then pulled away. He missed the warm press of her body. “More than mana, though,” she said, “I want you to prove you can talk to them. Since you’ll be revealing yourself anyways, it means you’ll have the opportunity. If you’re clever, maybe you can do it without giving things away.”

With how many things vied for his attention, he’d forgotten about the whole, ‘communicate with topsiders’ thing. Which was a big thing to forget about, but again—lots on his plate.

“Clever how?”

“Dunno. Figure it out? I couldn’t come up with anyway. But if you can understand topsiders, I’m sure you could prove it to me, somehow.”

“But without revealing myself?”

“Tricky,” Aseri agreed. “But you’re a nerd, aren’t you? Figure it out.”

Logan shook his head. “Nerd. This is why pillow talk is dangerous. You’ll ruin my reputation."

She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, with how dumb most Avatars are, I’m ecstatic you're not cut from the same cloth. Figure most other Named will be, too.” She placed her hands on his hips, raising her eyebrows up at him. “And how many times have I gotten you off? Clearly it’s not something I'm bothered by.”

That’s true. Logan might not have a huge ego, but it still prickled here and there. He was only human.

Only a demon, he thought amusedly.

“Alright,” he said. “How’s it working, though?”

“You being the dungeon boss? Multiple boss rooms,” she said instantly, not needing to adjust to the swivel in topic. “It’s not that unusual. Keep the setup we have, but build a ‘final’ encounter room behind mine.”

“But you won’t lose.” How would he ever see an adventurer, that way?

“I’ll throw the fight,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Stop worrying about logistics. I’ve already figured it out.”

If she said she had, then he believed her.

“Okay,” he said. “That’ll mean I need to level up.”

“And take a few lessons,” she said pointedly. “You’ve got a head for management, but unless you’ve magically improved in your fighting skills …”

“They’re less than ideal,” Logan said. “I know. Good thing I have a competent teacher available.”

“Good thing,” she said dryly. “But don’t think I’m going easy on you.”

===

[Level gained. 2->3]

[Skill earned: [Read Movement] ]

Logan paused, for a brief moment, at the notification hanging in front of his face. He cleared it, then [Inspected] the skill.

[Read Movement]: Passive. Identify actions before they’re taken. 

His brow furrowed. With complete accuracy? Every time? Likely not. Probably a passive boost to his capability to read his opponent’s intentions. Skills weren’t comprehensive in their descriptions. If anything, as a whole, they were frustratingly vague. 

He continued to pour mana into himself.

[Level gained. 3->4]

[Skill earned: [Dominating Aura] ]

Oh boy. 

[Dominating Aura]: Intimidate nearby entities. If intimidation arouses, double the arousal effect.

Since it didn’t specify ‘passive’, he assumed the ability would drain his stamina as he used it. Since his class wasn’t a caster-type, all skills of his would fatigue him, rather than drawing on an internal ‘mana pool’. Aseri had given him a simple understanding of the various class types.

And, unsurprisingly, this was a sex skill as much as a practical one. Submissive targets—those who were aroused by a dominating presence—would be doubly affected. Does Aseri fall under that umbrella? She definitely enjoyed when he started asserting himself … but what made her blush was when he was soft and tender with her.

Lust versus love. Not that he would imply Aseri loved him. They were a while off from that, even if … he thought … something might be burgeoning between them.

He and Aseri had agreed to boost him to level five, so he kept pouring the core’s mana in.

[Level gained. 4->5]

[Skill earned: [Scalding Touch] ]

[Skill earned: [Vulnerable] ]

[Scalding Touch]: Grope target, inflicting two to five stacks of [Lust], scaling with entity’s arousal.

Yeah. What had he expected?

And honestly, devastatingly useful. His class was designed in a way that as much as fighting his opponent, he’d be teasing them into submission. With their current plans to raise adventurer’s arousal—and keep it burning—through the entire dungeon, this skill would be game winning. [Seductive Look] only applied a single stack. Attempted to apply a single stack; it wasn’t even guaranteed.

Though, [Scalding Touch] required he managed to grope his target. Could take some effort.

[Vulnerable]: The less armor and clothing an entity is wearing, the more [Lust] stacks are applied for relevant abilities.

Logan laughed. So in a fight, my goal is going to be stripping my targets. He couldn’t say he was surprised. That made intuitive sense to an incubus’s combat style.

“What’d you get?” Aseri asked.

He spelled out the various abilities to her. She would, after all, be helping him learn how to use them.