Wandi sighed, “Rule three, Maniri.”


    “But we aren’t even in the dungeon yet, Wandi,” she replied, adjusting her heavy mail as we walked towards the wooden archway. “Besides, If there’s anyone it’s safe to let tie you up, it’s a lawkeeper. Look at him, he’s all pent up… I don’t even need to sit on him if you’d let him use my mou…”


    “Maniri,” I said quietly, “Please stop. I know you are teasing, but this is a rift… I am only wood, if I am distracted, I could DIE in there.”


    She sighed, “I know, but I am actually a little excited. I mean, I have four points I haven’t used, and will probably have more eventually since I only had base and common paths available at tin. Guardsman worked well, but its traits are not exactly the thing of adventurous delight.” she glanced at me and lowered her eyelashes. “On the other hand, stuff like inspection and hold the line might be PERFECT for a deputy.”


    I shook my head, “You need to talk to Wandi about that. She’s going to be my first deputy, period.” I laughed a little, “And yes, I am hiding behind her. I haven’t been with a woman in longer than you have probably been alive, despite the age I look. She is going to be my first, end of story.”


    Takala slowly nodded, “I can actually respect that. My only question is why hasn’t she been your first already. I’ve seen how she looks at you.” she glared at Wandi. “You would be in bed with him right this minute if he asked. So why aren’t you?”


    Wandi was about to answer, so I coughed. “Because I want to wait and build the sexual tension.”


    Maniri Laughed! “Finally, an answer I get. All this perfect timing and customs stuff…”


    I shrugged, “Hey, you said I was dommy. I am not looking for a Sunday.” I glanced at Kalamiti, who was being strangely quiet. “I want the best, and I don’t want to give her up, even if that means I have to edge her for a while.”


    “Okay, Tighten up!” Maniri said as we were about to hit the gateway, completely ignoring the fact that she was the one leading the distracting conversation in the first place. “I am left, Takala is right. Kalamiti is round-up and scout, and she''s the point when she’s not running. Tony is left-wing, Wandi is right.”


    “For the small fry, if we get a horde, Kalamiti will be falling back between me and Takala as the flanks. We will try to get them bunched, and Wandi can use Buss to clean the flanks. If you can restore, Tony, we will need it. If you can’t keep up, LET ME KNOW and we will back up to the gate.”


    “If we get big singles, like dires and dinos, wait till I drag ‘em into the earth to unload. Especially Dinos, those things are smart enough to recognize where ranged attacks are coming from.”


    “Dinos?” I asked.


    Maniri nodded, “Yep, that’s short for a dinosaur. Really big lizards with big mouths and sharp teeth. The little ones are just another horde, but the big ones can bite even leather armor in half.”


    I nodded, “I know what a dinosaur is, I just didn’t… I have never seen one in real life.”


    Maniri laughed, “You will see them this time. And you are gonna hate them until we get a chance to barbecue some dino steaks with a sweet strawberry sauce… yummy. Anyway. No splitting! Tony, I want you close enough behind me that you can bend me over the whole time!”


    I raised an eyebrow and growled at her.


    Maniri grinned, and Kalamiti growled in return, before diving into the delve. We formed two ranks and followed immediately behind her.


    The terrain looked… almost the same, except that it was called a ‘basin’ for a reason. Hundreds of acres of copse-studded hills, very old-cliff organic like the Appalachians, rolled ahead of us. The outer edges were surrounded by a tall brown rock wall, almost completely vertical, that was probably a hundred feet tall and curved inward at the tops.


    The land itself was not a straight view, with tall shagbark hickories and sycamores, surrounded by clumps of brambles and various tall towering herbs, and I even saw some strange types of trees and plants I had never seen before. We were in a grove of white oak and maple, and off to the left there was a fully loaded wild blackberry patch surrounding a ripe elderberry tree.


    I could see why this was considered a farming rift. EVERYTHING looked ripe, even though some of the greenery didn’t match the rest in season. Rampions and heavily laden tomatoes were alongside northern peppers and even patches of other herbs and wild greens like lamb’s quarter, collards, wild broccoli, and dandelion, as well as other herbs that were coming up.


    I risked feeding a little energy into my survival for just a moment and got a shock. Most of the herbs brought up detailed little lists on my transtator and a lot of those lists I never could have imagined! Northern bellclover could be blended with shockweed and rake to make a good health-enhancing tea or refined alchemically into a permanent durability enhancer, some blue strands had a high essence content for blending low-end cleansing tonics, and even the blackberries could be mixed with several other herbs I’d never seen before to create a decent antitoxin! I even had a pretty good idea of how to gather the more unusual leaves, some of which required the root.


    “Are we going to be fighting here? Is it going to get bloody?”


    Maniri nodded, “Usually.”


    “Can we move out a little? You brought me along to help gain wealth, and I don’t want to waste all this food and alchemical herbs.”


    Takala waved at the bushes and the elderberry tree, “Oh, we are probably far enough away from them.”


    I shook my head and waved at all the REST of the stuff. There were certain things like dandelions spotting the fields, especially around some of the heavier rock outcroppings, but since I wasn’t particularly worried about enemy snipers, “Can we move up to that outcropping? Melee right, with some climbers?”


    Maniri nodded, “Yeah, let’s do that. We normally sort of slowly march, but are you serious about ALL of this stuff being valuable?”


    I nodded, “Yeah. My scrounging sense is screaming at me that most of these patches are packed with edibles and even the stuff for making elixirs, antivenoms, cures, and heals. Even some of the stuff like that pasteweed you are stomping on can make a valuable essence-enhanced waterproof glue for arrowheads and leather armor.”


    We started scooting out of the trees, coming alongside a large outcropping of worn brown boulders, when we were suddenly fighting.


    Have you seen that dinosaur movie? Remember those waist-high lizards with multicolored frills? Well, now imagine dozens of them all charging with their mouths open. No fancy frills, no venom spit, just tons of hissing, snarling, charging, and leaping lizards all trying to swarm us at the same time.


    If I were a movie producer, I would fire the special effects guy for that fight, unless you were trying to show defenders getting instantly swarmed for dramatic tension like a reptilian version of a fast zombie movie. I started swinging my rifle, without even putting the bayonet on it, but it didn’t matter. Every swing of the butt, every kick, every punch was killing horrible sharp-teethed little beasts.


    I was bitten. Lots of places. My hands were covered with scratches, my legs were bitten in a dozen places, and the only parts that were really protected were my boots and armor, and even that got bites here and there.


    Restoration was not too bad. When I got the pressure off of me a little, I started touching each girl who was bloodied and feeding them a few points of energy each. Yes, I had played THOSE games before, but I’d usually played the tank or some kind of rogue rather than the healer because I’d gotten my fill of staring at a team’s hit-point bars.


    This wasn’t anything like that, though. I could see the scratches and bites they had taken, and when I restored them, I could feel what my energy was doing, quickly sealing wounds, encouraging the veins and nerves to repair themselves, to be honest, each of the girls was FAR better at dealing with the hordes of little monsters than I was.


    I was good at fighting single targets, taking them out, looking for weaknesses, but I had never fought a crowd of tiny carnivores before, piranhas with legs. That’s what these were, mindless little eating machines that should normally be going after bugs or rats, only they were going after us.


    Maniri let out a barking hiss, and I could feel a weird sort of essence draw from her for a moment, before the whole horde, what survived of it, suddenly turned and started going directly after her. Oddly enough, even though she was in the middle of the swarm, she didn’t seem to be taking any real damage. Lots of little scratches, but they were incredibly minor, and with the pressure off of both Kalamiti and me, we waded into the mass of critters and laid waste.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Honestly, it wasn’t much of a challenge without being pressured by constant attacks, and in a few minutes we were surrounded by dead and dying waist-high lizards and I was using my bayonet to double-tap the ones that were more intact.


    Ding! You are now Drudge level 6. You have 4 points available, for a total of 9. The creatures were considered minor threats, but since they were tin-ranked, you gained a lot more advancement. They’d probably have killed you if you weren’t getting power-leveled by your nymphomaniac team. You also gained another two hundred energy credits to waste on pointless gifts for your harem.


    Did you just say ding?


    Yes. Another reason to get an expansion module. Wouldn’t you prefer to hear the actual ding? Well, twice, technically?


    You can do that?


    Of course. I don’t have an identity pack. That’s why I cannot speak to you except through text. You also keep referring to me as ‘he’ simply due to your bias. If I had a pack, I could sound or look like a ‘she’ or even an ‘it’.


    If you were a she, your behavior and jokes would be considered very bad.


    Exactly! As it stands, the only basis for comparison I have is what I pick up from your conversations.


    Maniri grinned at me, as I put the finishing touch on one of the little monsters that was still trying to move. “Good healer. I got some boo-boos. If I take off my top, would you fix me up proper?”


    I shrugged, I wasn’t even really winded, but I noticed that both Wandi and Kalamiti were looking a little tired. Takala was okay, she hadn’t tried to use a pattern in the rush, and by the time Maniri grabbed aggro, we were dealing with the horde just fine using basic weaponry… and she’d been using her staff to good effect. “I actually am enjoying the effect of your armor. You are right there in my spank bank.”


    “Your what?” Maniri asked.


    I coughed a little, “Spank bank? You know… uhh… what I think about when I am alone in bed taking care of myself?”


    She laughed, “Spank bank. I like that. A cute guy rubbing himself off thinking about me. The only thing better would be watching or helping.” She glanced at Wandi. “Right. Rule three. This was a surprise. I think maybe the basin hasn’t gotten cleared in a while, usually the trash doesn’t come this close to the entrance, and Takala can drop a cloud before they get close enough to attack.”


    Wandi nodded, “It gets like this if there’s more than a week between clears. On the plus side, it’s likely we will get a titan lizard or thunderbear. Titan lizard bones and hide sell for big bucks, and thunderbears sometimes have crafting cores and their hides and meat are both valuable.”


    Kalamiti glanced at me, “Okay, wood-level cultivator, did this help?”


    I smiled at her, “Absolutely. I guess this stuff is trash for you, but I got rank six out of it.”


    You also gained a rank of law from active restoration in a high-intensity area. Your law affinity is now lucky 7.


    “I also got an affinity rank out of it. I guess practice helps.”


    “How high is your affinity?” Kalamiti asked.


    “In Law? seven now.”


    Maniri chuckled, “That explains it. Takala’s actually our lowest rank, early tin. She’s focused on her primal, but every once in a while she still gets a free point. At tin, most of our affinities are in their teens, so we don’t get practical advancement very often.”


    I nodded slowly, “Ruffolan mentioned that it might be better to save up free points to spend on traits or merged skills instead of affinity ranks?” I asked, wiggling to get more comfortable and scraping off some bits of smashed lizard from my armor.


    Kalamiti nodded, “Usually, at least until you get past wood. At this rank, you’ll get points for improving your path quickly. Once your affinities get into their teens or twenties, they get much harder to raise naturally. If you can get useful new traits, it’s worth it to spend a few points, but I still have a cache, since once you get to copper things get a lot tougher and points matter more.”


    “They matter more?”


    Takala nodded, “Yep. Technically points from gaining ranks don’t matter. I mean, we could learn or absorb anything if we were focused enough and knew what we were looking for. Our aspects let us know if there are new traits available for our paths, and we can decide whether or not we can use the trait. Above copper, though, natural training gets more and more difficult.”


    Maniri laughed, “I like being fit, but I ain’t going to spend six hours a day for the next ten years trying to get over twenty in a physical aspect. Yes, you can get most anything naturally, and even knowing what trait opens up on your path allows you to try to train to get it, but it’s a heck of a lot of work past a certain point. Diminishing returns.”


    “Should I save all my points then?”


    Kalamiti shrugged, “If what you said about your abilities is correct, you are already seriously well-trained. You should be increasing your essence energy, with a corresponding increase in essence recovery, as you increase your rank. If you have any really broad traits, it would be worth it to raise those, but mostly saving points you don’t absolutely have to spend might be wise. You might naturally gain a special ability that takes a lot of points to unlock, or your path might have a special trait that is impossible to train.”


    Do you concur, Jessie?


    While I am not technically allowed to advise you on your path, I can say that Kalamiti’s advice is remarkably sound. With enough points, you might wish to consider purchasing a shape for your chimera affinity, meaning a transformation much like Kalamiti’s.


    “Whoah.”


    “What?” Wandi asked.


    I smiled a little, “Jessie just told me that if I gained Kalamiti’s aspect, and I had the points, I could turn into a tiger too.”


    Kalamiti raised an eyebrow, “how exactly would you do that?”


    I think I actually blushed. “Uhh… lots of physical contact? Like, close, personal contact?”


    “Wait, wait, so if you and Takala got really intimate, you could… like… manifest her armor?” Maniri asked.


    I nodded, “I think so?”


    Maniri grinned, “So basically, you can borrow an aspect’s special path bonuses, as long as you like… get naked with them? So you have a very strong personal incentive for fucking the hell out of anyone that has a useful aspect?” she flicked her claws meaningfully.


    I sighed, “It looks like it. Of course, supposedly, I can also open up new path options for them based on my affinities, although they might have to spend points or train it too.”


    Maniri laughed, “You are a walking social disease that adds power. Boy, if I were you I’d have already worked my way through half the girls in town. I mean, think about it. Kalamiti’s shifting, my claws and tunneling, Takala’s armor, and Wandi’s hearing… You’d be a total beast. All you’d have to do is take us to bed, and do lots of physical intimacy things like letting me sit on your face.” She turned to Wandi, “Are you sure you don’t want to end the run early? We have a pretty good reason now.”


    I shook my head, “No. I mean, I don’t have the points to buy everything, and I have a pretty firm cap on how much I can add. If you really want to end early, I will have to stay here and try to solo it.”


    Wandi shook her head, “Not a chance. Maniri’s just breaking rule three again. I am damned close to copper, and so is she. Kalamiti is halfway through, and Takala…”


    “I got a rank too. Tin three.”


    Wandi nodded. “Money. Advancement. And the Basin is a lot closer to a breakout than I like. We are here to do a job, and I’m not bailing on it.”


    Maniri sighed, “You know I was just messing around and flirting. I wasn’t actually suggesting we bail. A share of a thunderbear core would go a long way towards helping me with some… problems, but I will try to remember rule three.”


    Wandi looked at Maniri closely. “Please do. You are my friend, but if you get distracted, it could hurt us all. I don’t want to have to find another anchor. You are damned good, the best I have ever met, but it’s time to get serious. You know that if we DO find a tyrant or a thunderbear, even a hint of distraction could cost us all. Please don’t make me choose between you and Tony.”


    Maniri gulped. “Right. I apologize. I was just trying to keep the fun rolling. You know I can buckle down. I’m just not used to having an actual male in the party since they tend to avoid us.”


    “They avoid you?” I asked curiously. This seemed like a pretty put-together group.


    Kalamiti nodded, “I don’t have a sense of humor. Maniri has too much of a sense of humor. Patternists like Takala scare a lot of delvers, and Wandi’s aspect freaks a lot of could-be party members out.”


    “Why is that?”


    Wandi laughed, “Stinky girls. We’ve been together since early wood, and don’t want to break up, which means… well… we’ve been running a team of four for a long time. So I figured this is the best place to find his harem.”


    I shook my head, “Great, now Maniri’s going to start making jokes about it too.”


    “Like slaves?”


    I shook my head, “No. where I come from, there’s a type of fiction about guys with lots of women in stories. They are called harem literature, although I don’t think I have read many where they are actual slaves because we consider slavery evil. Usually, the stories actually involve a meek wimp that’s pretty much dominated by a group of strong women that give him powers somehow.”


    Maniri nodded, “Like a guy that can somehow use the aspects of the warrior women he’s surrounded by to grow powerful if he has sex with them?”


    I sighed. “Yes, exactly like that.”


    I honestly trusted her to not screw up rule three, but based on Maniri’s evil smile, I realized that I was probably never going to hear the end of it.