The Sauna

The servant girl, who always kept her wits about her, seemed to be as surprised as Luke at the Elf's proposal.

"W-what do you mean, miss? He is a man and you are a girl. You can't go into the sauna together."

Nathalia had something in her mind: compete against the half-wolf to see who could stand the longest in the heat of the steam. Still, she hadn't thought about the side where they would both be half-naked, so her face reddened when she realized it.

"No, that's not... t-that's not what I meant!" She shouted as she ran out with both hands on her face.

"Whew..." Luke sighed in relief.

It wasn't that he didn't want to go into a sauna, accompanied by a pretty girl, he just doubted he would be able to see her again in a professional manner after that. In the end, the half-wolf went to the sauna alone, and Nathalia locked herself in her room.

The sauna was on the second floor, it was his first opportunity to be there.

He knew that Ayumi's office was on this floor, however, since he hadn't seen her since she had traveled to Oukiwa, he didn't see the need to ask anyone's permission, considering all the other employees were on the second floor.

As he opened the door, he saw several closets with baskets for his clothes and wooden benches. Although he found it strange that there was already a lot of steam coming through the cracks in the door, he wisely deduced: 'Martha must have laid the stones.

After undressing, Luke wrapped a white towel around his waist and went to relax deservedly, after all, he had worked hard the past week.

Nathalia was a lot of trouble not because she was weak, but because she needed a lot of support as she acted like a Berserker while her main skills were those of a swordsman.

"Sigh... Will she ever reduce her bloodlust?"

Vushh! The dragging of the wooden door made a rubbing sound with the metal of the slide, which was already a bit rusty.

Among so much steam, it was a little difficult to see anything, and it was also difficult to distinguish smells, what was not difficult was to hear, and he distinctly heard breathing.

"Huh?" The owner of the panting breath also realized his presence.

Squeezing his eyes shut, the half-wolf saw a silhouette. Startled, he stepped back and said, "Sorry, I didn't think the sauna was already occupied. I'll come back another time."

"Ara Ara... Luke, is that you?"

"Matriarch?"

"Yes, it's me."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"I'm already leaving, do you want me to wash your back?" She questioned, emerging in the middle of the steam. Ayumi was wearing a towel, held only by her right hand in front of her beautiful body, however, the large towel could not hide the large volume of her breasts.

This proposal immediately reminded Luke of that night when Meredith washed his back, so the half-wolf's heart quickened like never before. Without a second thought, he said, "Could you?" He couldn't tell you why he could be more audacious with his boss than he was with his childhood friend.

"Sure, come... sit down."

Luke sat down on a comfortable bench, the opposite of the one he used when he lived in the shed. Ayumi placed some more hot stones in a metal box with the help of a tong and then poured water over them. Tchassssh! More steam infested the room.

Now quite close, Luke could easily hear the breathing of the Matriarch, who was still panting. "Are you okay?" He questioned her because it might have been a while since she had been in the room.

"Yes..." She replied with her voice a little shaky, then put a sponge against his back.

Ayumi was well impressed with the boy's physique because he was not like other men: strong, full of muscles and hair. Luke had a well-defined and not at all gaudy body, not to mention his beautiful tail. Every part of his body seemed to have a purpose, and this impression was made even more remarkable by the scars that spread all over his abdomen, chest, and back.

The Matriarch had to disguise her amazement at the sight of all this and soon began to find the scars charming, as they indicated that even though the boy was quite young, he had a lot of experience.

'I think Oliver deserves a raise...' thought the woman, as she rubbed Luke's back.

To the half-wolf's disappointment, nothing else occurred. He still hoped that Ayumi would reinforce what she said in the library, and maybe they could seal it with a kiss like the first time, however, nothing happened.

Ayumi only said as she left, "Come to my office after you are finished. I need you to make a report on your progress."

After fifteen minutes in the sauna, the half-wolf came out and made his way to the white door with gold details.

Knock! Knock! The knock on the door alerted the Matriarch, who was already immersed in the documents she needed to check.

"You may enter!"

"Excuse me."

"All right. Have a seat, please." There were piles of documents under the woman's desk, who was wearing a white dress of light fabric since it was so hot. Behind her was a large window, which caused quite a bit of discomfort in the half-wolf. "One second and we'll talk."

After a few minutes, Ayumi finally seemed to have finished her work and Luke was still sitting in front of her, waiting patiently.

"Well! How are you guys doing?" She questioned, crossing her fingers on her hands.

"We've already completed eight of the ten missions required to take Class E, Nathalia hasn't been injured once, and we're on a passive mission from the Guild Master himself to accomplish."

Passive Missions are those that you don't have to go out of your way to try to fulfill, whereas Active Missions are the opposite.

"I see~ Tell me a little about this mission that Zion gave them."

"The day before I arrived, a group of rookies went missing. Our job is to find this group or find clues as to what occurred."

"Did you find anything?"

"At first nothing, not even remnants. However, today we found two adventurers trapped in cocoons in a room whose monsters were Class D on floor two. Incidentally, Superior Goblins also appeared in the forest of Vasconcelos, so they may have disappeared before entering the Dungeon."

"I was already aware of the Goblins... However, this is all very unusual... Perhaps it is happening again..."

"Again?" Luke questioned, confused.

Ayumi looked at him with arched eyebrows and said, "Can't you see the resemblance?"

"Similarity to what?"

"The similarity to The Calamity."

"Ca-what?"

"You don't know what The Calamity was?" The Matriarch looked quite amazed as it was hard to believe that a person, with as much experience as Luke, didn't know about such a historical event. "I'll explain, but first, go get Nathalia. She deserves to hear this too."