Harem Master Rpg Story Ch 009

Hey! It's been quite a while. I'm sorry it took so long, but other things completely consumed all my time over the past two months, leaving me no room to write. Now, I should have some more time (but who knows for how long?). So, to not prolong, some quick skills reminders, and then the chapter. I hope you enjoy it ;)

Thanks to Netrepid for editing.

--- Skills reminder Asher (Harem Master) ---

Building harem - allows adding members to a harem, grants relationship levels, and limits the number of members to 1

Building relationship - grants exp points for sexual activities (kissing, touching)

Stats amplification - Asher doesn't get his own stats, but gains 1% of his partner's stats

Partner enhancement - Asher can boost 1 of his partner's 1 stat for 10 points

Additional protection - members of harem can't get pregnant

--- Skills reminder Elara (Asher's girlfriend) ---

Fast Attack - Elara gains 5 agility for one attack (upgraded by Asher - removed negative effect of reducing strength)

Better eyesight - Elara can slightly better detect traps in dungeon

Nimble movement - Elara can slightly easier dodge attacks

Master essence - when there's Asher's cum in Elara body, she gets 5 agility

Powerful attack - for a single attack, deal additional 20 damage. Only available if Asher made Elara orgasm in the last 3 hours

--- Asher Montgomery ---

Asher and Elara were getting close to the canteen, she was half a step ahead of him, which allowed him to glance at her firm ass. Sport shorts were stretched on her amazing ass cheeks, highlighting them in the best possible way. At the last few steps, Asher sped up and opened the door for her. His girlfriend's sweet smile was enough of a reward for his efforts.

They had met earlier in Asher's room, they were supposed to talk about his class and yesterday's talks. They managed to do so for a while. Asher learned a few facts about dungeons that Elara had learned from their new friend - Madelyn. But they couldn't keep their hands from wandering over their bodies for too long, and they moved on to more exciting things - activating Elara's skills and gaining experience to level up.

They had achieved fifth level together, that was the point at which explorers gained new abilities. Normal explorers. Asher hadn't gained any new skills by achieving level five of his harem. They had assumed that he would get new skills when he reached the fifth level of his class instead. But they were aware that with his class, nothing was obvious and worked as normal.

However, Elara reached level five of her relationship with him and unlocked a new skill - Shared Satisfaction. They had both hoped it would be another powerful ability and checked it instantly, but it turned out that they needed to add other members to their team to learn details about this skill. Elara could gain a boost if she made a member of the harem come in the last twenty-four hours. The problem was that they didn't know what boosts she would get until they added members to their team. This skill suggested that Elara would need to sleep with other women in Asher's harem, and he couldn't deny that it aroused him.

Asher picked up his breakfast just after Elara and glanced around the room. His eyes immediately found Madelyn. The petite blonde sat in the corner of the room alone and stared at him with hope. He smiled and moved towards her, she reciprocated when she realized that he was coming to her. Even with her hair in a ponytail and without any makeup, Asher marveled at how cute she looked, and her light blue eyes were almost as amazing as Elara's irises.

"Hey." Asher sat facing her.

"Hi," said both girls at the same time, as Elara sat down next to him. They exchanged small smiles and focused on eating in silence, which Madelyn broke after a moment.

"I have your daggers," she said to Asher's girlfriend.

"Hmm, someone was very impatient yesterday, and I forgot about them."

Asher felt his cheeks redden. After his talk with Rachel, he wanted to quickly find some alone place with Elara. With his eyes focused on the food, he decided to ignore her comment.

"I was going to look for you," Madelyn said while putting her bag on the table. That caught Asher's attention. Elara explained to him how exploring bags worked, but seeing it with your own eyes when a light orb transformed into a pair of daggers was much more exciting than just hearing about it.

"Thanks." Elara grabbed her daggers and put them next to her on the seat. They finished their meals, talking about today's classes. They were starting with a shared lecture, but then they had fights at the square. This time in pairs, and everyone was supposed to take a fight. Asher was worried because he didn't have a lot to show, he could only hope they could choose their partners, and he could fight alongside Elara.

Then Elara would have her class dedicated to assassins, and he was supposed to talk with Rachel. Asher would prefer to avoid it, but he knew that it was necessary. She could, and she wanted to help him. If only she would stop flirting with him all the time.

After they had finished their meals, they went to their lecture. It took place in the same room where they had a welcome assembly the previous day. This time only about half of the seats were taken, which allowed them to sit at the back of the room. Madelyn explained that all shared lectures were not obligatory, students were only supposed to take exams, and the results of them had a minimal impact on their ranking position anyway.

The lecture was about the basics of exploring, the knowledge that, according to Madelyn, many people already had, and they considered those lectures as useless, which caused lower attendance. Asher looked around the room, when his attention was caught by a person who was staring at him.

She sat alone a few rows ahead of him, slightly to his right. She was turned on her seat, and her brown eyes penetrated him with her gaze. Asher could tell she was thinking about something really hard. He admired her face, she was really attractive, more suited for the cover of a fashion magazine than killing monsters in a dungeon. And there was a possibility that there would be something more between them. Asher's talk with Ava yesterday was short, but they agreed to go exploring together on Saturday.

Asher felt uncomfortable under her gaze and averted his eyes toward Elara. He wondered why Ava was staring at him. What did she want from him? Their talk was quite normal, even if she seemed scared.

"Welcome," a female voice snapped Asher out of his reverie. He glanced forward, looking for its source, but his eyes darted to Ava on their own. He was relieved that her back was now turned to him and she was focused on their teacher. Asher moved his eyes to her, she looked fifty, with brown hair tied up in a bun, round glasses low on her nose, and small wrinkles around her eyes. She matched a long-sleeve white shirt with blue jeans. She had a soft smile and delicate make-up on her face.

"I'm Susan Miller, and I'm going to teach you the Basics of Exploring," her pleasant voice echoed through the room. "That's your first theoretical lecture. I assume that you don't have any knowledge about dungeons or exploring. For those of you that know something already, this would seem boring and unnecessary, but the purpose of this lecture is to ensure that everyone has a basic knowledge."

"You are not going to make any notes?" Madelyn whispered at Asher's side and looked meaningfully at his empty desk.

He didn't have anything with him, he wasn't even sure if there would be anything worth noting.

"You don't have anything either."

"This lecture is based on a book that I have already read."

"So, what are you doing here?"

Madelyn flustered and glanced down.

"Umm... I don't have anything better to do."

From her reaction, Asher assumed she didn't tell him about something - she flustered and looked uncertain, but he wasn't going to press her if she didn't want to tell him. He focused back on his teacher, who was still talking. He hoped that he hadn't missed something important already.

"This lecture is not about the history of dungeons, but a short introduction might help understand some things. About three hundred years ago, luminous spheres appeared all over the Earth. They were slowly growing, people were scared of them, but that didn't stop their curiosity. Many people vanished and never returned after they got too close to those orbs. After weeks, they transformed into entrances to a dungeon. We don't know why or how they appeared here. People wanted to study them and discover what they did. Many people died, but those that returned came back with stories about another world, about monsters that live there, and about treasures that they gained. Curiosity and greed for items and new terrains to conquer pushed even more people into a dungeon."

"It's not certain how first people discovered classes, stats, and abilities, but they found out that they could use them in a dungeon. What's more important for us right now is that they discovered restrictions about entering into a dungeon."

"There are six main classes. Dungeons entrances limit it, so that only one person of a given class can enter in a team. When more people with the same class try to enter together, the entrance will split them into different starting rooms."

"Ah, at the start, you appear in the starting room, it's quite intuitive, but I will talk about them more later. People quickly realized that they couldn't take items with them to a dungeon. Every weapon that didn't come from a dungeon or wasn't created from items brought back from it stays in the starting room. All technology, all vehicles, and everything that didn't come from a dungeon except basic clothes can't really enter. It will stay in the starting room, and you will get it back when you come back from a dungeon."

"If you have any doubts about whether you can take something with you, you just need to consider if this would help you in exploring. If yes, and it didn't come from a dungeon, then almost certainly you can't take it with yourself."

Asher wondered why it would let only six people inside as a team. If there was some reason for that, or it was just like that, perhaps they couldn't find an explanation. He thought that maybe Madelyn would know something more.

Susan grabbed water from her desk in a short pause. Asher's eyes instantly went towards Ava, at the same moment, she turned in her seat, and their eyes met. He quickly averted his eyes from her. Could that be an accident? Was she looking at him all the time? Does he have something on his face? Why was she staring at him like that?

"Always. Always go into a dungeon as a full team. After killing a monster, every member gains the same amount of experience. It doesn't matter how many people participate in a fight. Yes, it's true, that loot stays the same, and you need to split it among more people, but you are just learning, it's not worth risking your lives to earn more."

"Your level does not match the dungeon's level. When you reach level two, it doesn't mean you are ready for level two dungeons or to fight against bosses from level one. You will not be ready," Susan said, while firmly shaking her head.

"To go into a higher-level dungeon, you need to beat three bosses at the previous level, but

please

don't rush with bosses. It's preferable you reach level five before you even start to think about bosses, and you should get even higher just to be safe."

Asher wasn't sure what the numbers were exactly, but after killing one monster with Elara, they gained nineteen percent to second level. Six monsters like that, and they could level up. But he wondered how many monsters they could kill during one exploration. He wasn't sure, but he realized that reaching fifth level would require at least a few trips to a dungeon, so it would take some time before they were ready to fight against a boss.

The rest of the lecture was about less important information about dungeons. During it, Asher couldn't stop his gaze from darting towards the fire mage sitting in front of him. A few times he caught her glancing at him, and he flushed every time their eyes met.

The lecture lasted an hour and a half, and with the amount of knowledge that the teacher passed to them, Asher regretted not bringing anything to make notes. Elara looked really bored, and Asher was sure that it was the last time that she appeared in this lecture. He would need to attend it and pass on the most important things to her. At least he would have something useful to do.

Asher got up from his seat and realized that now was the time for the class that he would prefer to avoid. Until a few days ago, he was looking forward to arriving at the Academy and fighting with other students. Now he was concerned about the course of the fight. His skills worked only with Elara, if he ended up with someone else, they would be useless. And without any stats, he couldn't do anything else in a fight.

Reluctantly, Asher followed after his girlfriend, exchanging short comments about their lecture with both girls accompanying him, but his mind was occupied with upcoming fights. They arrived at the square, which was filled with people. Asher realized that instead of attending a lecture, they had come here to train and prepare for fights. He considered whether he should do training after classes. To not get out of form and shape. Not now, but at some point in the future, he would have the possibility to fight as a warrior in his team. When he would upgrade his skill, granting him stats. But for that, he needed time. Elara decided that Building Relationships and Partner Enhancement have more value for their team. With five percent of the stats that he could get after upgrading his skill, it was hard not to agree with her.

Elara found an empty training dummy and started to prepare with her daggers. At first instinct, Asher wanted to do the same, but then doubts about whether it really made sense stopped him. He would need to avoid a fight anyway, so he didn't really need to warm up. Together with Madelyn, they watched Elara and other students. Asher tried to spot Ava around the people, curious if she was warming up to her fight or waiting just like him for her turn. He couldn't find her, but he noticed a group of tutors discussing something. Rachel, among them, suddenly raised her arms over her head, and it looked like she shouted something at them. Then she shook her head and moved from them to one of the circles. Asher didn't know what happened, but he was sure that she didn't look happy.

When the time to start class came, Nolan, the assassins and warriors tutor, stopped in the middle of the square and grunted loudly. The silence spread around him. Slowly, students moved toward Nolan so they could hear him better.

"Today you are going to fight in pairs, so everyone could have their first fight. We have four circles and twenty-eight fights to take. It would take some time. Every fight will be judged by one of the tutors. The pairs are set by us, there's no discussion, no swapping. You need to adapt to the situation that occurs."

No one looked happy about that, but for Asher, it was especially unfavorable. Nolan continued with the rules that Elara had already shared with Asher. The circles let tutors check students' health. They also blocked all skills from coming into, or coming out of them. And the rule stated that if the tutor announced the end of the fight, everyone was supposed to stop everything immediately.

Then Nolan announced the first fights - none of the trio of Asher, Elara or Madelyn. Ava wasn't supposed to fight either, but Tiffany was chosen for a first fight with three people that Asher didn't know. They were supposed to go with her on Saturday to a dungeon. She was a warrior that they considered as a possible teammate, so they decided to watch her fight. Madelyn had instantly agreed with them. Asher had the impression that she didn't really care who she was going to watch, but she wanted to go with them, so they followed after Tiffany to her circle.

They found a place to sit at the nearby tribune, which was almost empty. Four people entered the circle and were preparing to fight. Madelyn introduced them to Asher and Elara. Tiffany was joined by Naomi, a petite Asian with a ranger class. Their opponents were a bulky girl with red hair - Sam, with tank class, and Patrick, a slim guy with ranger class.

"Sam and Naomi are best friends," Madelyn added. "I'm not sure why they put them against each other."

"Maybe that's an accident," Asher suggested.

"Or they want to put them in a hard situation," Elara said. Asher furrowed his brow, if that was true, then he could forget about joining Elara in his fight. What if he would need to fight against her? He couldn't hurt her. Not only wouldn't he be capable with her speed, but he couldn't force himself to wound her. He sighed heavily.

Both Tiffany and Sam chose a sword and a shield for their fight. The rangers didn't have a choice and picked simple, identical bows. Nolan was judging this fight, he stood almost on the edge of the circle. He started the fight.

For a few seconds, all four people inside the circle stood, watching themselves carefully, waiting for their opponent's first move.

Naomi drew the bow and waited for the occasion to shoot. Tiffany and Sam stared each other down, standing outside the range of their swords. Naomi lifted her bow quickly and released her arrow. Sam lifted her shield to block it, but the arrow flew over the edge of it towards Patrick. The distance was too long, and he managed to react in time, dodging the arrow.

All this would not have mattered if Sam had not made an amateur mistake. When she realized that the arrow wasn't intended for her, she turned her head to check if her partner had been hit. Tiffany instantly noticed her opponent's distraction and jumped forward.

Her sword slashed over Sam's shield. The tank was already turning back, she tried to lift her shield, but she couldn't block the hit. The sword cut at her forearm. With her second hand, Sam tried to launch her own attack, but Tiffany blocked it with her shield. Patrick, with his bow ready, was waiting for an occasion, but Sam was between him and Tiffany, so he couldn't aim clearly at his opponent. He started to move along the edge of the circle, trying to find a better angle.

Tiffany, after blocking her opponent's attack, made a step to the right and tried to cut at Sam's body again. The tank was focused this time, she blocked it with her shield and moved for her own slash, but it hit directly into Tiffany's shield.

It looked like she barely blocked it, her legs bent slightly under her. Sam used this moment to jump back, outside of her opponent's range. Naomi at that time also moved along the circle's edge, moving in the direction of Patrick. The distance between them was decreasing, it brought a risk, but also an opportunity to shoot at each other.

Sam stood two steps from her opponent, her shield held high, and swung her sword slowly in front of her. She wasn't in range to hit Tiffany, but it didn't allow her opponent to get closer easily. Both of them stood and waited for the opponent's move, but they were not in this fight alone.

Asher wasn't sure if Tiffany was doing it on purpose, but her movement around Sam matched Patrick on the other side, making Sam constantly between them. But Naomi, moving towards Patrick, left the line of the other three fighters and could shoot at her friend. She released her arrow, which went low and hit the ground next to Sam's feet.

Asher realized that if she wanted to hit Sam, she barely missed, but if she didn't want to hurt her friend, she showed perfect precision. Sam jumped slightly back instinctively, and Tiffany instantly rushed forward, trying to attack her opponent when she was distracted. But Patrick reacted quickly, he used Sam's change of position and released his arrow, which struck Tiffany's left arm. It stopped her attack. Sam, noticing it, wanted to attack instantly, but stopped and lifted her shield. Naomi's arrow bounced off her shield with a thud.