Misaki rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and started to look around. She was still a little tired and wished she had been given the time to eat and clean up first. Unfortunately, it seemed her upcoming Trial of Ascension wasn’t going to wait that long. Dewari had snatched them up almost as soon as they rolled out of bed. She had gotten maybe three steps from the bed and then she was here. Wherever here was. There was something about it that was familiar, but for the life of her she couldn’t place what. The scenery was majestic, but she had never seen it before. She would have remembered being in a forest with trees like this. The lighting was poor, but there was enough to see by. She was sure it was just the early morning light.

Before she could really take in the scenery, Dewari spoke. Clearly having read her mind, “Actually it is always twilight here. Welcome to my realm. Now, you two follow me. We can talk on the way.”

Dewari made for a path, and the two followed. Misaki, now curious, asked, “May I ask why this place seems familiar? I don’t recall ever being here?”

Dewari smiled, and looked back. “Actually you have, well your soul has anyway. You were in my realm when I first spoke to you before I reincarnated you as a dungeon.”

Misaki cocked her head, “I remember that, but it was an endless black space then...”

Dewari giggled, “It would have looked like that to you then, yes. It wasn’t actually like that.”

Misaki nodded, given what she now knew about souls, that made sense. It also made her wonder about that time. Souls had a warped sense of time too. “I wonder what would have happened if I had not chosen to be a dungeon.”

Dewari shifted her gait slightly, “If you had taken my counteroffer of Succubus when you initially refused to be a dungeon? I can’t really tell you that. Arlie the Primal God Queen, however could. I can only tell you what I planned. Keep in mind, you likely would never have met Phyllis if you had taken that path, nor would you have your cute little kids.”

“It was just an idle thought. Anyway are you going to tell us about our trial?”

Phyllis finally spoke up, “I am curious, but I have a feeling this is just going to be a formality.”

Dewari gave her a bright smile, “I knew you would catch that. Yes, it is. I have been paying close attention to you, so at this point, the Trial is little more than a formality. You two will still be taking a test, but for the next two weeks you are going to be in my care, taking special lessons.”

“Two weeks!? But we have responsibilities! We can’t be gone that long!” they said in unison.

Dewari didn’t skip a beat. “Time passes differently here. One year in the mortal plane is fifteen years here. It is not going to be a problem. As far as everyone else is concerned you will be gone for a day.” 

Misaki didn’t know what to say, and looked over at Phyllis who seemed equally unsure about this. Dewari continued to say, “Don’t worry, I have taken care of everything. Your babies will be fine without you for the day. Anyway, we have a few minutes. Misaki I think now would be a good time to tell Phyllis about that idea of yours.”

Misaki blushed, embarrassed to suddenly be put on the spot. After a moment she composed herself and relayed her school idea to Phyllis. Who nodded along, made a couple of interjections, and they were soon ironing out the details. Only for them to reach their destination all too soon.

They had come out into a clearing, it was a midsized clearing. Just large enough for the modest structure before them, and the fenced-in sparring yard attached to it. The building itself was about two-stories tall with red-grey stone walls, and a dark grey roof. “Alright, this is where you will be staying for the two weeks before your test. For the most part you two are ready, but there are a few things I feel you need to learn. You both have things to learn, but they are different. In Misaki’s case her recent leveling spree means she has unlocked a sub-core. Now that she has a sub-core she can leave her territory. That means she needs to know how to fight with her avatar.

“Phyllis, your options are going to be interesting this time around. Where Misaki needs combat training, you need magic training. All of your options will unlock lust attribute magics for you, and a couple of them will even allow you to convert lust-based energy into magic. Two weeks is enough time to teach you the basics of lust magic, and Misaki can help you. I also feel you two need to learn to fight together. I believe that it will only be to your benefit given how your home is rapidly becoming important. Not everyone will like that, nor will they all approve of what you allow in your town. It is only a matter of time before a young celestial gets uppity about your town, they always do.”

Misaki noticed the look on Phyllis’s face just before she spoke up. “Let me guess. Our test will be a joint battle against a Celestial.”

Misaki had a feeling that guess might be right, and Dewari smiled. “Very good. Yep, a young hothead I acquired a month ago. She crossed a line, and that let me take her from her patron for some punishment. I’ll let her go after I knock her down a peg. I’m sure you two will have plenty of fun helping me with that.”

“May I ask what she did?”

“She defaced one of my shrines.”

Phyllis paled, “Is she stupid? That’s...” She trailed off.

Misaki didn’t need to be told how bad an offense defacing a shrine was. It was one of those crimes that the gods took universal offense to. Even if the god/goddess in question was the arch-nemesis of your patron it was still not something you do. Long story short the gods were known to react badly to that. The girl was likely dropped by her patron the instant she did it, and then thrown to Dewari. Her mind flashed to Tina, recalling how Dewari had punished her. She wondered if this girl also got a spanking. From what she had heard, it was quite the experience. Tina, a goddess, had trouble sitting properly after that. For a mortal that would no doubt be far worse. She did not envy this girl at all.

Then her mind drifted to celestials in general. Young celestials valued their purity the most. If they really wanted to bring her down a peg, they would have to tempt her into giving it up. Misaki felt it would hurt her most if she willingly gave it away in a moment of weakness. Already she was forming a plan in her mind. What spells to use. How to apply her skills, and what to wear. Tempting and corrupting a celestial would certainly be a nice challenge. Doing it with Phyllis would make it quite fun. In fact, she was willing to bet that was the real challenge here, to corrupt the girl. Get her to give in to lust.

“I guess the main reason Phyllis needs a basic mastery of lust spells is that you want us to work together, and tempt the girl into having some fun with us.”

Dewari gave her a smile that could only be described as mischievous. “I’ll tell you later. In the meantime. Why don’t I show the two of you around my little school, and then get you some breakfast? After you eat, we can start your first lessons.”

The structure, if she had to describe it, was a small boarding school. The second floor housed a handful of small bedrooms. Each one was sparsely furnished with a wardrobe, a bunk-style bed, and a small side table. Not much to look at. There were bathrooms, but those were also small. With only enough space for a small tub, and a toilet.

Downstairs there were two classrooms, a kitchen, a dining area, a general-purpose room, and a modest library. The library was nice, with a warm wooden floor, some cushioned seating areas, and a few small tables scattered about. Not to mention an array of shelves with numerous books on a variety of subjects. Misaki even noted a number that she did not have. Misaki, with her love for books in mind, made a mental note to visit and peruse the selection. If she had the time that is. She did not yet know what schedule Dewari had in mind for the two of them.

Combat training sounded like a bit of a drag, and she knew she was expected to party with Phyllis. Not all that surprising though. Sure they were a hundred levels apart, but Misaki had no doubt she could catch up. Experience gains were adjusted by level. Beat someone higher leveled, and you gain a nice boost to experience, defeat someone lower and the gains are reduced. Combine that with increasing experience requirements, and it causes leveling to slow. Training and pushing your skills is a good way to gain experience passively, but you had to push yourself. Otherwise, you would never level. Technically you could, but the repeatedly perform task A to generate experience school of leveling caps itself out pretty darn quickly. It’s not very good for leveling skills either. The skill page really just listed things you were good at, and told you how good you were at said skill. If you didn’t truly push to improve, just using it would never really level it. Although people have noted that rapid gains can occur during combat, but there was a reason for that. It wasn’t unheard of for someone to gain three or four levels in a spear-related skill, for example, after a life or death battle. The battle itself pushed them to their limits and taught them what they did wrong.

Combat was a fast way to level, but not the only way. Other methods were slower but generally safer. It arguably balanced itself out in that regard. You could level quickly by challenging dungeons, but if you made a mistake you would wind up dead. On the other hand, you could also level by practicing pretty much anything else. Farming, mining, carpentry, masonry, blacksmithing, you name it there was a way to gain levels with it. Just not at the same pace as combat.

As a dungeon, she had things easy. She merely had to wait, and adventurers entered her halls on their own. Every time they were corrupted or fell within her halls she was granted experience, DP, and other resources useful to her growth. Although to reflect the ease of her gaining experience, she needed more for each level than an adventurer of the same level. At least to make up for that, her avatar got some nice boosts, especially near her core. She wondered how strong she would be outside her territory, she didn’t count this place, as she felt it was a special case.

Her mind dwelled heavily on the topic of leveling and training, through breakfast. It wasn’t until Dewari took them to a classroom for their first lesson that she put those thoughts aside.