Dipping our Toes - Part 1

Author's Note: I'd forgotten about Hana's birthday, which is on the sixth of the ninth month, but now I've finally added sections about it to the previous chapters.

Chapter 176 (Thread of Fate) Part 2 addition starts here: Also, she's now 25 years old

Chapter 178 (Four-EyeD) Part 2 addition starts here: Then she lets herself get drunk,

176P2 link: https://manasongwriting.wordpress.com/2023/03/22/chapter-178-four-eyed-part-2/

178P2 link: https://manasongwriting.wordpress.com/2023/03/22/chapter-178-four-eyed-part-2/

--

--

"The consumption is really great, now," I casually remark as I take the helmet off and close my eyes to not get dizzy.

"You didn't notice any mental discomfort or strain?" Lina quietly asks as she receives the sci-fi piece of equipment. She was too focused on her own test to read my thoughts.

"No, why?" I ask back and tilt my head, but my horns don't bob, and I almost hit the wall with them, so this is decidedly less cute than what the girls can do.

She stares at me with her gloomy eyes for a second, trying not to laugh. Then she clears her throat and continues, "I can still improve the mental part of the enchantment if it's still bad."

But I shrug and put on a new helmet. "My 'Willpower' is too high, and I'm too used to crazy mental stuff to be bothered by mild discomfort."

She hums softly in understanding and agreement, then stares at the Daft Punk helmet as she decides, "I'll send this one to the enchanters, then. They'll give more accurate feedback."

And I nod. "Indeed."

Then I raise my head and stare at the creepy but flamboyant cathedral of wonders. I want to send my summons out to comb the area because it feels so restrictive being forced to look at it with only my real eyes. It's even a little bit dangerous to be here without 360º vision (maybe 720º, considering it's in 4D?), but I can't help myself.

"Should we really be here, then?" Lina worriedly retorts and starts shifting uncomfortably on her little feet.

But I smirk daringly as I answer, "No, but I think my Thread of Fate is pulling me, and I don't feel like resisting it."

She's a worry-plom, so she doesn't see the fun in that and immediately asks, "Let's go back…"

So I instantly agree, "Alright."

If it's one of the wives that's asking, then the pull of my Thread might as well not exist.

--

Caterina is acting a bit weird tonight, but it isn't about Hana, no. It's like she's avoiding getting near us or even joining the conversations. She was already a rather introverted person, yes, but now she's worse than Lina.

It's like she's… embarrassed! Oh, wow. Is she shy because we all saw her cum? That's adorable.

I mean, who wouldn't get embarrassed when a bunch of people you're only friendly with saw you cum by the fingers of your lover? Nudity is one thing, but it's clear that Caterina saw intimacy as being… intimate.

And little by little, we corrupt the pious warrior woman.

--

Today is the 10th, Tann, day of Darkness. We think it might be a good idea to not explore the dungeon today while also avoiding stressing ourselves in training.

And I'm woken up by Yunia, her long, un-drilled straight hair deliberately spread out all over my body, caressing me gently with its silk-like touch as she slowly moves her head up and down.

Then I'm enthralled by her shining blue jewels. They stare amusedly at me as her lips kiss the base of my Cock, and then her head slowly rises, and her red lips trail behind, creating a veritably slutty expression on her gorgeous face.

Once she reaches the tip, she gives my frenulum a little tickle, and I unleash it all upon her tongue. She knows exactly how to receive my Blessing without missing a drop, and then she kisses the tip as thanks for the meal.

--

I increased my [Polearm Use] and [Ekrano Style] by 1 (now 12+10 and 7). Alissa didn't level any skills, but she did use her bow and her [Illusion Magic] quite a lot, even though it was a close-quarters battle all day. Roxanne increased her [Reduced Mana Cost] by 1 (now 18+10) due to her repeated use of cheap, low-level spells to prevent the men from relaxing even a second. Hana increased her [Taunt] by 1 (now 4) as she very effectively kept the aggro on her and created numerous breathers for the rest of the front line. Ciel increased her [Parry] by 1 (now 15), a modest level up, as she didn't get many opportunities to do anything significant since the three harpies hogged most of the spotlight. Lina got no level-ups as she didn't fight and she's still suppressing any enchanting skills. Aoi also had no "Stat" ups, but that's expected. And Yunia increased [Spirit Magic] and [Weaverism] by 1 (now 1+29 and 32), and both made her so happy that she wanted to blow me when she woke up.

--

With the number of prototypes increasing, we allow them to be distributed among our men for preliminary training in the extra-dimensional zone. That little sadistic room is a bit too tight for everyone, so they're going to expand it and establish proper fortifications, but I can already see that it'll be a headache to fortify things in 4D.

How do you even make plans for that in a sensible way?

And now that I think about it, I'm most likely going to have to touch my Thread again to find the correct direction to the next portal because we could get lost in n4 ways right now!

No, I have no idea if n4 actually makes sense for this situation; I just wanted to say something nerdy. I have a degree in programming and AI. That's logic, not math.

"Hmph…" Lina grumbles in disappointment. As the only one with the [Math] skill, she was interested in learning something cool from my thoughts. But the joke's on her; she's likely better at math than I am.

And this morning goes just like the previous one: we do orb-boosted mana circulation training while helping Lina so that she can continue enchanting. The golems are joining us in the training, but it doesn't seem like their mana organs have grown on their own, like… ever.

It's a curious thing, really. I have to use [Mold] on them to increase their mana organs, and it's been a while since I last did that, so I might as well do it now.

I copy Aoi's mana organ since I've inspected her soul more often than those of the girls, so I understand the peculiarities of her organ more than the others'. Also, she has a significant amount of MP, so she's a good choice to copy from.

Then something occurs to me: I've never tried to use [Mold] on a living person before, and I think I should, just for curiosity's sake. What's the worst that could happen?

So I turn my head to Gify as she sunbathes on the railing of our balcony, and she suddenly shivers as she senses danger approaching.

"Gih…?" she questions drowsily as she raises her head.

But I only have a couple of seconds before she reads my mind, so I pounce and grab her.

And then I remember that she can teleport at will.

*Poof*, and she's gone.

*Poof*, and she's now behind Alissa, fully awake, aware, and wary.

"GIH!" she shouts accusingly, and the memory she's managed to unearth actually surprises me.

"Gify, that's a game. Why are you even bringing that up?" I confusedly question with a frown.

"Gih guh gih!" she chirps angrily, then blows her tongue at me, "Pbbbbt!"

She's just being a bit silly because I gave her a fright, so I just wave my hand dismissively and chuckle. She'll get over it soon enough.

Now, let's see… there must be something else I can use. So how about… a bird…?

But Ciel frowns at my complete disregard for hurting the wildlife. And Alissa awkwardly looks away due to her numerous "accidents" with wildlife when she was younger.

"Really, Alissa?" Yunia questions, surprised that such a "refined" young woman had that kind of past.

"I was a brat," the little fox confesses embarrassedly, but her fluffy tail still wags slowly because she's sorry but not sorry.

"Almost as tomboyish as your sister," I remark with a smirk. "No question that you two are related."

And she obediently nods. "True."

Then Hana suddenly makes a pensive expression as she realizes something, "Huh… I'm very different from my sister." Then a bad thought starts to creep in.

"But not very different from your brother," Ciel comes in with a save.

"True," Hana hums and nods repeatedly.

Then I turn to the skies again and search for a vic-… potential volunteer, and I quickly notice how the bird population around here seems to be quite substantial. It makes sense, considering where we are, but now I wonder if they have problems with bird poop getting everywhere…

I'd rather not think about that, to be honest, so I just activate [Animal Tongue] and then [Telekinesis] myself to the nearest bird, which is perched on the roof of our guest mansion.

"Hello. If you let me use magic on you, I'll give you lots of food," I calmly propose.

The bird brain coos softly, then tilts its feathered head, not understanding what I'm talking about. This one looks like an average pigeon, so maybe I'm expecting too much from it.

I sigh and grumble to myself as I think about how to rephrase it. "Follow me. There is danger, but also food," I dumb it down as much as I can without lying to it.

And it coos happily, its little chest puffing up as it tries to look courageous. It's adorable, but it's also quite dumb, and maybe it doesn't even truly understand the meaning of "danger."

Well, I don't think I'm going to make it explode, so I guess it'll be fine. Though, its mana organ seems to hold only a singular mana particle, which makes me believe that I do have to be careful not to crush it with my spell.

Anyway, it follows me back down onto the balcony, and then I gently scoop it and… prepare myself very carefully before I cast [Mold]. I'd rather not traumatize the wives, and I definitely don't have a thing for exploding cute things, Gify.

That was in a video game! A video game!

"Gih!" she chirps angrily and shakes a clawed fist at me.

Whatever. I hold the button for [Mold] inside my mind and use [Mana Control] to reduce the mana that I'll infuse into the spell, then release it as I touch the bird.

I enter the same soul-modification VR world as before, but I feel "slow and sluggish," which might be because of the lack of mana. But, oh well, nothing I can do about that right now, so I try to alter the bird's mana organ… and nothing happens.

Huh.

Okay, what if I put in a bit more mana…?

And Ciel hovers over my shoulder while I prepare the spell.

"No pressure at all, Wolfy," she whispers with a perfectly innocent smile.

A-ny-waaaay… I gradually increase the mana I infuse into [Mold], but I'm still unable to change the bird's soul, let alone its mana organ. There are many reasons why this could be happening, with the most obvious being that the golems' souls are "artificial." Though I know I have very little actual knowledge of the inner workings of the souls, I know enough to understand that it's best to not even dare guess the correct reason for this phenomenon.

The only good thing that comes out of this is that I now know that [Mold] might be an easier way to get normal people to see the inside of someone's soul. As far as I know, [Sense Soul] is an extremely hard skill to learn, making it unlikely that it'll ever spread.

Well, I'm done here, so it's time to free this bird brain. "Alright, little bird. I'm done, so now we'll give you your reward. And thanks for volunteering," I earnestly state.

It lets out a loud, happy, and adorable little coo, then tip-taps its claws excitedly in anticipation of the food. So Ciel pats its head, and it happily leans into her hand.

She's almost gushing about the rat with wings, so I give it to her while I pull out a small assortment of little berries and grains. This little bird will have the feast of a lifetime, so we're ready to care for it for a day or two, as it'll likely overeat to the point that it won't be able to move.

And once I show the plate to the bird, it goes dizzy and almost falls off Ciel's hand. It's never seen so much food, and now it's the happiest it's ever been.

Now, with that done, the show returns to its usual schedule.

--

We have roasted not-pineapple with cinnamon as a side dish for lunch, and it's the star of the show for me. The not-pineapple is made of literal tree bark, but it's been boiled until it softens up and becomes like steamed broccoli. It has a lot of water in it, so you can't cook past the "crunchy" state, or it'll become mushy and disgusting.

The bird is allowed to rest in our bed and recover from its food coma after it promises not to shit in the room. It didn't even fully finish its feast, so it'll likely still be there when we get back tonight.

And in the afternoon, we join the rest of our men in the training to get used to the helmet and the necklace so that we can fight in 4D. Urmeie accompanies us since she already joined us for lunch, but we'll have to meet with the Earthlings.

Hihiriwa, Alcander, and Oritiki are working together to organize the Earth court mages so that they can build a proper fortress without losing their minds. It's easy to just make a big wall that covers all four dimensions, but it's harder to create a layout that makes sense for properly building fortifications and then translate that onto 2D paper for the mage-engineers to use as reference.

There are so many pages on the desk of the trio that they might as well make a book out of them.

But that's not our problem, thankfully, so we move on to the 4D training area. When we arrive, we spot a group of Lordsguard whacking each other with training weapons as the extra dimension has messed up their fighting style in a way that their Skills weren't ready for, so they've devolved into fighting like cavemen.

Then their supervising officer notices our arrival and loudly clears his throat. "Royalty is present!" he announces.

And everyone salutes. The humans put a closed fist over their hearts, the elves gently pinch their long ears, and the wereanimals grab a furry appendage.

"At ease," Yunia immediately orders, and the men relax, then return to their "training," but now carry it out more seriously.

Then we join the Earthlings, who are in their own corner, definitely training less seriously than the Lordsguard.

"Afternoon, friends," I greet with a very casual tone, drawing a suspicious, raised eyebrow from Lily as she considers whether or not this is banter.

"Hello… your Highnesses," Chesa actually answers first, and then the others follow suit. In this small room full of Lordsguard, they wouldn't dare be snarky.

Thant suddenly looks like he wants to talk, so I turn and stare to encourage him to speak up. Then he hushedly beings after a second of hesitation, "Hey, uh… 'at ease' doesn't mean that they can just 'relax.'"

"But it does? It's a command to do exactly what it says," Yunia immediately replies, knitting her pretty golden eyebrows.

And he becomes very awkward, unable to even look in the direction of the elven goddess. "Uhh… huh… I guess it's different on Earth?" he hums as he repeatedly glances at me.

"What does it mean on Earth?" I curiously ask. I'm a hobbyist, not a true military nerd or even a buff, so my knowledge is full of holes.

And Thant straightens his back, spreads his feet apart, and puts his hands behind his back. "This is what 'at ease' means. You take this stance and wait for further orders."

"That doesn't look like you're actually 'at ease,'" Yunia points out.

Now, this I can explain, "Human military is full of archaic traditions because they're obsessed with the past, or they copy weird formalities from better armies to try to look cool."

But this triggers Yunia, who lets out a brief rant while wrinkling her cute little nose in distaste, "Sounds like the Lordsguard of weak and corrupt nobles. They become conceited and egotistic as a way to hide the fact that they're a waste of breathable air."

"That's harsh," Thant hums in surprise, finally finding the balls to gaze upon her glorious beauty.

And Urmeie snorts loudly, then finally chimes in, "She's being kind. Conceited soldiers put the people they're supposed to protect in danger."

So I actually have to come to Earth's defense, "Earthling armies aren't that bad. It's just a thing in our culture to preserve our customs. It makes people happy to know that the silly ritual they've been doing for hundreds of years has some important meaning, or some other pretentious bullshit like that."

And Lily actually chuckles amusedly while the other three Earthlings stare at me, wide-eyed. Now I'm being harsh, but it's the truth. Then the three turn to the smirking loli, also surprised by her, but Lily has always been fiercely progressive, so I don't know why they're surprised by her of all people. I guess they just expected her to always disagree with me?

"Wolfy, traditions aren't a bad thing," Ciel lectures with a disapproving frown.

I shrug. "I'm just a bitter cynic. Being forced to follow traditions I hate made me like this."

"Grow roots to give you stability, but cut them off when it's time to grow further," Lina quotes her mother, who quoted the Goddess of Growth.

"Balance in all things," Ciel gently counters with a good one from Festivity, then flashes a sweet smile to our gloomy little wife.

"In this regard, I can't say we Rupegians are much better than you Earthlings, especially after all that 'stagnation' talk," Urmeie wryly remarks.

"The 'what' talk?" Lily questions confusedly.

So I turn to Lina, and she freezes up for a second, but then she sighs and slowly takes off her helmet. She likes talking to me about history, but she'll still do it because she's a good girl who loves to help.

--

Lily snorts and remarks, "Sounds like a cliché to me."

"Every high fantasy needs to last hundreds of thousands of years, or it doesn't feel 'epic,'" Samkelo predictably follows with a nod.

"Or like an MMO where the NPCs are all stuck in limbo," Thant wryly shares.

We turn to Chesa, expecting a remark, but she just remains silent as she quietly nods, then tenses up when she notices our stares.

"The Earthlings' behavior strikes me as odd," Urmeie suddenly interjects, her intense gaze making Chesa tense up even further.

"Our what now?" Lily questions as she narrows her eyes and crosses her arms in a standoffish posture.

Then the bear spits some truths. "You're all treating this too lightly. It's like everything is a joke to you."

"You get used to it," Alissa dryly states.

"I find their humor to be refreshing," Ciel affectionately adds.

And Urmeie prudently accepts, "Wolf is a bit guilty of this, yes, but he has shown that he can be serious when needed."

"Oh, that's because you can't hear his thoughts," Alissa amusedly but also not very amusedly retorts.

But Lily becomes defensive. "It's our way of coping with the insanity of this world."

"Our 'world' isn't insane," Urmeie grunts back, slightly offended.

"It's insane how we've all been thrown into it without our consent," the loli boldly stands her ground.

"Loosen up, everyone. This is a silly thing to argue about," Samkelo diplomatically interjects.

But Urmeie becomes annoyed. "I'll loosen your asshole with the pommel of my sword," she grunts, her tone (perhaps deliberately) ambiguous about whether or not she's serious.

And the boy-gnome smirks wryly. "What does everyone have against my asshole?"

Then the Princess' stare becomes perversely sadistic. "Nothing. It's a fun thing. Inside your asshole is your 'cum bean,' and I can't reach that without stretching it."

"You mean my prostate?" he replies, a bit taken aback.

And she shrugs. "Whatever you call it."

But the stupid gnome then turns to me, and he stares wide-eyed in pure disbelief.

"What? I don't let her touch my asshole. It's off-limits to everyone," I emphatically explain to the idiot.

"Typical. You men are afraid of that, yet you love anal," Lily banters, and a chill runs down my spine as I feel a shadow of my Lily in her.

"I thought you were on our side, Lily," Thant whines to his mother/older sister.

And she shrugs. "Gotta say some truths."

Then Urmeie snorts haughtily and adds, "Hmph… on that, we agree."

--

--

Hall of Fame of Patrons

The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:

Prince PreownedFIN.

Prince Owldente.

Prince S. R.

Lord Andrew Meyers.

Lord Bakerdea.

Lord Maurice.

Lord Mattirro Draca.

Lord Tenebris Lupus.

Lord Paul Daval.

Lord Paul Daval.

Lord Tmac.

Lord CopeyDunt.

Lord BlindTactic.

Lord Philip.

Lord d3235.

Lord SubJef.

Lord GalacticTNT.

Lord Glaistig Uaine.

Lord School work.

Lord patrick__starz.

Lord Peter Kraushuber

Lord David England.

Noble Aclys.

Noble Carl Baxter.

Noble Tony Starrk.

Noble DND.

Noble Anon A Moose.

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