Fighting Them There

"My bra doesn't fit." Sophie was trying to get the lingerie back on, and not having much luck with the top half. "I think it shrank last night."

Max looked at her breasts spilling out from the red lace, and wasn't entirely sure he agreed. "That's what it looked like before, though." The image of Sophie's constrained breasts muffining around the red lace of that bra had burned itself into Max's brain. He already knew it was going to be one of his most cherished memories, and seeing her try to get the bra back on was very much in line with what he had seen just before he rubbed them all over his face. It was still unreal to him that Sophie was his girlfriend, his lover. That she allowed him to rub her amazing breasts all over his face.

Sophie frowned at her breasts. Max didn't think that was warranted. They were firm to the grip while still being soft to the touch. They were large enough that they could fit something between and too large to fit in a hand, but not so large as to be unwieldy or prevent Sophie from seeing her feet. To his mind, they were perfect. "No, seriously," she said, "last night before I came over, my breasts were smaller." She didn't obsessively measure her tits, and hadn't since she was twelve and worried that she wouldn't get any, but she

had

put quite a bit of effort into dressing for the previous night's escapade. Putting her hands to her breasts, she was now certain: her bust must have increased.

Not having any reason to believe his girlfriend was lying to him, Max then wracked his brain trying to come up with an explanation. "It must be the seals, then. Your breasts were already that size when you took your shirt off, but you already had both seals before we got Meesh out of the room. Does that mean that when we enhance your magical strength or mettle, that your breasts grow?" It was a superficially exciting, but mostly terrifying concept. Not only were they intent on progressing her seals, but Sophie was almost certainly going to clear many dungeons and rise in level. Going up in level increased the stat bonuses of a person's class, which included all the stats that his seals increased. While the thought of Sophie with larger and larger boobs had a certain undeniable appeal, he liked them as they were and thought that if they got much larger they might really get in the way of her dungeon raiding.

Shaking her head, Sophie dismissed the idea. "There aren't a lot of Valkyries in the world,"

that

was an understatement, there were less than two thousand B-rankers on Earth, and they were split between so many classes that humanity likely hadn't even seen them all. You could count the number of Valkyries on the fingers of one hand, "I'm sure it would have been noticed if our breasts got bigger when we leveled up. No, it has to be something about

your

class. Maybe it's in the fine print about slaves or seals or something."

Now that it was the light of day, and in fact nearly two O'clock in the afternoon, Max was able to go through his class in a more systematic way. There were a lot of moving parts. He could progress his slaves, and he could progress

himself

using resources that he had gained through his interactions with Sophie. But being able to sink points into progressing her Rainbow Step skill wouldn't explain how her breasts had gotten larger, especially because he hadn't done that yet. He had his own skills of Soothing Touch that used his slave's mana to heal their wounds, and Motivating Strike that did the opposite; but again that explained nothing about what had already happened. And then he found it. It was right next to his class' equipment preference for leather armor. He wasn't completely sure, so he hesitantly wrote the ancient runes for Sophie to help translate.

"Aesthetic Preference?" Most hunters didn't put a lot of thought into Aesthetic Preference, because in the larger sense it mostly didn't matter. Dungeon equipment was the only equipment that could be brought into the dungeon, and dungeon equipment came from chests. Chests had requirements marked on them, which limited who could open them, and the equipment inside them would match the needs of the person opening the chest. So Sophie would be able to get armor and shoes that fit and she could wear those when passing through the dungeon gates. Of less general interest was that those items would also generally adhere to the hunter's

aesthetics

, that she would not just get footwear that she was capable of wearing, but that she expected to get footwear that looked like it was part of an outfit with the armor she got. Sometimes it meant hunters would look like comic book superheroes, but mostly it just meant that it looked like they didn't have to borrow from friends when they dressed up for the Renaissance fair.

Max nodded. "It looks like my class goes a bit farther than making sure the pants match the shirt." He wrote down the offending statement. "The slaves conform to the master's Aesthetic Preference." They both looked at it. Assuming that he hadn't written it down wrong, that

was

what it said.

Sophie wasn't sure whether to be angry or not. "Did your class just make sure that

I

matched your hat?" He didn't even have any dungeon equipment yet, though the government was supposed to ensure that they could open some chests before they were sent into a dungeon. "If I'm going to be treated like an accessory, it would be nice to know what I'm accessorizing." She was teetering towards being upset. Working her way towards frustration.

Seeing that he needed to cheer her up, but not really knowing how to do so, Max did the best he could. "I think maybe it just makes you the most beautiful version of you that I can imagine." He smiled at her. "That's what it looks like from here, anyway.

Her eyes widened as if he had slapped her. "That's... what did you

do

to me?" She rushed to the mirror and looked at herself. She looked at herself from afar, and she leaned in close to scrutinize herself. She didn't see any difference. She tried to remember the spot on her forehead, the wave of her blond hair, the stubborn tuft next to her left ear that kept sticking out after it had been brushed down. He put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly, and she melted into it. "Are you seriously saying that your perfect version of me is just me with slightly bigger boobs?"

He kissed her left ear, right next to the stubborn tuft of hair. "

I'm

not saying that. The Ancient runes and the hunter's powers are saying that you're the most beautiful person. That I'm lucky to have you with me." He kissed her again, and she turned to catch his lips with her own.

Sophie turned and wrapped her powerful arms around her lover. "I love that you can say exactly what you need to say to make me stop panicking. Now, we're going to need some breakfast eventually, but first let's get some more of your Essence into me." She smiled at the thought. Receiving his Essence had felt fantastic, and from her own status it apparently reduced her loss of mana, durability, and stamina for several hours after acquiring it. A boost that was functionally equivalent to healing but was used before injuries were sustained rather than after. She knew that she'd want to have his Essence in her every time she went into battle.

"Some more?" He inquired of the woman in his arms. "So did you figure out what the Essence was?"

Kissing him again, she smiled coyly. "I got the message that your Essence had been received," she said with half lidded eyes, "when you came in me. As soon as I took your semen, I got the Essence bonus as well." She twiddled her finger on his naked chest. "So all we have to do is get your cock into me, and I can carry around your Essence all afternoon."

Max wasn't nearly as sanguine as she was about that. "Wait,

what!

There has to be another way!" His eyes were filled with panic, and Sophie's eyes were filled with questions. "Once we're fighting the dungeon monsters, it's not just us. I have to give support to the other party members. One of them is going to be Meesh!"

That stark reality broke her out of her reverie. "Oh shit, right! I don't want you to pour actual cum into our party members.

Especially

not Michelle. Damn." Just thinking about it was squicky enough that she stopped trying to coax her boyfriend into fucking her. She thought about it some more. "OK, so maybe Essence is blood, like you read it the first time. Or like,

any

fluid. So instead of putting semen or blood into me, I could open my mouth and drink your-"

"Ew. No. I'm not going to piss on you." Max cut her off.

"Saliva!" Sophie clarified. "You can like, spit in my mouth or something." Shrugging, he agreed. She brought her mouth almost close enough to kiss, and opened wide. Feeling like an absolute jerk, he spat into his girlfriend's open mouth. "Mmmmmm!" Her mouth closed into a satisfied smile. "Yeah, that's Essence too. It really feels soooo good to have your Essence boost." She hugged him close and put her head on his shoulder. "I love you, Max. I'm so glad you can share this with me."

Max was frozen like a stone, trapped between his gorgeous and topless girlfriend holding him in a loving embrace and thoughts of spitting into the open mouth of his sister. It was confusing and upsetting. "Sophie, I think that was still too weird to do with our future party members. And especially to Michelle." Even calling her Meesh seemed too familiar when the option on the table was spitting into her mouth while she groaned in pleasure.

She thought about how it must have looked to Max, how

she

must have looked to Max. She probably looked like a porn star or a trashy bondage whore. Strangely that didn't really bother her as much as thought it would have. She thought about what it would look like to watch him doing that to other women, and it was upsetting. However, a part of her thought that it would also be really hot. She pushed back against that part of her, and she was able to convince almost all of herself that it would be bad and horrible, with just a grumbling tingle around her envy seal insisting otherwise. "We could make it a ritual thing. You could put some water in your mouth and then pass it into the other woman's mouth. That would look like a more normal thing for a support class to be doing. We should try a few things. We might even be able to pour water from your hand, if it counts sweat or finger oils or something. That would be even less skeevy."

Those

did

sound a lot less weird. If he could just scoop some water into a party member's mouth to give them a period of damage resistance, that would be

normal

. He could tell other hunters about his abilities and even show them in mixed company. He relaxed, and was again reminded of how great Sophie was. "Yeah, that sounds great. When your current Essence boost runs out, we should try working up from something minimal so that we find the least inappropriate thing I can do to trigger the Essence in you."

She pouted. "I was kinda hoping that you'd keep me filled up with Essence all day by the original method, but I suppose what you say makes sense. We need to find the fastest and most mixed-company acceptable ways to do everything your class does." Max agreed. And then he picked up a blanket from his bed and began wrapping Sophie up like a burrito. "What are you doing?" Sophie giggled, and gave only the most perfunctory of struggles. With how much stronger she was, she could easily shred his blanket and throw Max across the room, but she'd rather see where his game was taking them.

She was soon rewarded, fairly literally. The third seal appeared on her right butt cheek. The branding action felt comforting and supportive, like familial approval for a job well done. She stopped struggling entirely and leaned into Max through the blanket. "Hey Sophie, are you

bound

enough for the binding seal to happen?" His question was only half serious, but when the response was a happy sigh, he checked her status and realized that it actually had. He also noted that he had gotten more of the resource that he could spend on advancing Sophie and had more of the resource that advanced himself.

Too curious to go downstairs, they unwrapped Sophie and revealed her new mark. It was a spider web sigil in silver and black that was planted on her right butt cheek. According to his reading of the status windows, its presence increased her tenacity and vigor. Max couldn't resist, and gave the new mark a light smack. "Ooooh. Thank you, Max." It was absolutely not the response he had been expecting, but she soon informed him that his smack seemed like it progressed the binding seal, and that this progression felt like getting a good grade on a homework assignment.

Max didn't know what to make of that, so he decided that they should get dressed and go eat breakfast. Or early dinner. Or whatever the name of the meal was supposed to be.

###

When they came downstairs, everyone was so intent on not saying anything that they might as well have been shouting questions. His parents looked at Sophie, now dressed in his sweat shirt, and it was obvious that they knew what their son had been getting up to in bed. That they were assiduously declining to say anything about it did not stop it from being awkward. Max did not want to have a conversation about having had sex with his girlfriend with his mom and dad. Having his mom and dad knowingly and obviously avoid bringing up the subject turned out to be only slightly better.

The big ice breaker was the fact that Max was in a pretty good mood. This alone meant that he had avoided getting one of the classes that he had dreaded. If he had been a vanguard or an E-tier defender, they would have known instantly by the black cloud of despair he would have dragged into the kitchen. He very clearly had gotten something he was OK with, and the big question was "So, what did you get?" Max's dad asked with the kind of genuine curiosity that indicated that Michelle had kept her mouth shut.

Silently thanking his sister, Max told his parents the bare bones of what he was comfortable with. "So it's a support class. And it's not in the book or in the online databases, so we assume it's C- or B-tier." That brought an appreciative nod from his father. "It can do a little healing and mana regeneration, but the primary draw is that I can place and upgrade seals on my party members during downtime. And then they can take those bonuses they get during downtime into the dungeons with us. Right now, I can't put seals on every member of the team, but it looks like the number of hunters I can give seals to goes up and I'll be able to boost the whole party at some point. It's called Master, and I guess it's like a mentor thing."

Sophie was very excited. "The boosts from his seals don't seem to end, so I've got the seals on right now! I'm stronger, faster, more resilient, everything! It's like he makes me higher level." The only ending they'd found was that Max could dismiss a slave. There didn't even seem to be an option for the slaves to end the contract. Sophie couldn't end the seals if she wanted to, which she emphatically did not.

Michelle pouted. Understandable, as she also wanted to experience the boosts of the seals. Their mom had a different take. "So if your bonuses are given while out of the dungeons but carry on into the dungeons, do

you

have to go into the dungeon at all?" It was an innocent question. A reasonable one even.

Max felt his whole world crumbling underneath him. What if his class wasn't a dungeoneering class at all? There had been more than a few people who had decided that their class abilities were best suited to civilian life. If he could provide all, or even just the lion's share of his benefits without stepping into the gate, it wouldn't make sense for him to go with Sophie into the dungeons. There were only six places on the dungeon gate, and his place could go to someone who would contribute with their presence. He could just stay home and wait for his lover to come back, hoping that his seals would help her come back alive. It might be honorable work, but it wasn't what Max wanted from his life. He wanted to be there, helping. He wanted to fight the monsters over there. He did not want to toil on the home front while his girlfriend fought to protect him. Max's expression was one of deep worry, and he turned that worried face to Sophie.

"Oh, I'm such an idiot!" Sophie exclaimed, and then felt something very pleasurable emanating from her left butt cheek. "Oh! Oooh... um... I think I just figured out how to progress the green seal." She might as well have been speaking in one of the Orcish languages for all the sense that made to Max's parents. To assuage their perplexed expressions, she clarified. "Max's class has little rituals to progress the seals that give continuous bonuses. Unfortunately, those rituals are described in Ancient runes in his class description, so we didn't figure them out right away. Because: I. Am Not Good. Enough." She said it emphatically and then squirmed in her chair like Max had been pinching her bottom. "Anyway, just now while talking to you I think I figured out how one of the rituals works." Turning to Max, she said the most supportive thing she could think of. "Max, your class is weird and powerful, and we're still figuring out how it works. I'm certain that there are solid reasons for you to go on raids rather than just being someone who gives me a massage when I come back from missions. But even if there isn't, I want you to know that I will

always

come back to you for those massages."

It was a surprisingly comforting thought. "And I will always give you those massages. Even if I can't come with you where you're going." He smiled, and they kissed. His parents politely didn't say anything.

Michelle, however, was annoyed to the limit of her politeness. "Your tamales are getting cold guys, you can't just make out like lovedumb teenagers all the time."

It brought a laugh from Sophie and Max. "But we

are

lovedumb teenagers. I'm

especially

dumb." Sophie's self deprecating joke made Max chuckle again, and Sophie waggled her eyebrows at him like she had a sensuous secret that she was dying to share with him. Which of course, she did.

###

The next week went by in a flash. As it was coming to an end, Max wished he had more time. While Max wanted very much to go over there to fight the monsters, he also wanted to know how his powers actually worked. Some things like "Slave Storage" were still a complete mystery, not helped in the slightest by the fact that it currently had zero capacity. But they had made some real progress on that front. They'd figured out the most unobtrusive way to get Essence into Sophie: by Max kissing his own palm and then scooping water into her mouth. They'd found the six ways to advance a seal. And they'd found that advancing Sophie's Rainbow Step ability let her hover and fly up to the top of a three story building. It cost a bit of mana to float through the air, but she didn't have a lot of things to use mana on, so it seemed like it would be really useful.

And they'd narrowed down a pretty efficient way to progress all three of Sophie's seals. That was why Sophie was on her hands and knees with her arms tied together and why Max was slamming his cock into her pussy from behind while he repeatedly slapped her on the butt. It was simply an efficient way of progressing Sophie's seals. And she was babbling obscenities and insulting herself for the same reason. "Please Master! Please fuck your worthless slave! Please give me your Essence even though I don't deserve it!" Her words made Max uncomfortable, but he had to admit that the results were hard to argue with. They'd been going at it for a week, and already the seals were noticeably larger in the space they took up on her skin - and noticeably larger in the stat boosts they provided.