Oaths to Eep

Author's disclaimer

As always, all characters in this story are 18+ years old, and entirely fictional.

If you read the first chapters, nothing in this particular chapter should surprise you all that much, so don't let me detain you any further.

If you didn't, well, I figure you are the kind who likes a surprise.

This kind of story is still a bit of an experiment for me, so like before - if you think it would be fun to read more, please leave a comment, send me a message, or leave me a five star review.

Your feedback is the fuel that powers me to keep doing it.

Chapter 3

We managed to slip past a few more patrols, now that Amber was freshly motivated to be as stealthy as possible. Thanks to her skills in stealth, I found it easier to move quietly by carefully emulating her to the best of my ability.

Not that it was any chore to have to watch her gorgeous ass move a couple of yards in front of me the whole time.

I did try to remain cautious and pay attention to the surroundings too, but with Amber being in front, I was mostly relying on her to notice any roaming monsters before they could notice us, letting me focus more on not making any unnecessary noise and giving away our position.

We were getting close to our destination, with just one more major street to cross, just about to commit to rushing across the street, when Amber suddenly let out a gasp and backed up, bumping against me.

I barely managed to catch her as we both stumbled backwards, preventing her from going ass over teakettle into the trash cans we had been crouching between. Thanks to my new strength, and the speed of my system enhanced mind, I caught her around the waist, clutching her to me firmly, as I let my ass absorb much of the impact, knowing that even if I did manage to snap my tailbone, I would able to mend it with enough castings of my healing spell.

Fortunately it was not necessary, as I did manage to put a bit of a roll into our fall at the last moment, leaving me flat on my back, with Amber on top of me, her ass momentarily grinding deliciously against my groin.

Yeah, even in this awkward moment, I was feeling somewhat horny. Having the perfect ass of my long time teenage crush bobbing and weaving in front of me for the last hour, was having an effect. Having so recently fucked that ass, did nothing at all to diminish my desire.

"What did you see?" I whispered quietly into Amber's ear, that was conveniently close, due to the nature of our current position.

"I saw some sort of cow dude, real big. Shit, are you getting hard right now?"

Yes. Yes I was. I had been sporting a half chub just from admiring her nice ass, remembering what it felt like to be inside it, so my cock wasted no time at all getting rock hard, when she was actually grinding against it, in her struggle to get back on her feet.

"Cow dude? Like some sort of minotaur?" I asked her, ignoring her question for the moment. The answer was obvious, and like my hard on, there was really no time to address it right now.

"I don't speak nerd, so I don't know, but it is a big guy with horns. Real big. At least a foot long!" Amber whispered frantically.

Okay that was rather confusing, a big guy that was a foot long.

Rather than try to have her explain it to me in a way that would make sense, I carefully lifted her off of me, and regaining my footing as quietly as I could, I snuck a peek around the corner.

Parked cars on both sides of the street made for sufficient concealment that I was not very obvious, as I tried to get the lay of the land.

Staying low, I peered through the nearby cars, and it did not take me long to find what had spooked amber so much.

A huge muscled figure, at least eight feet tall, with the head of a bull. Other than what appeared to be some fat golden bands on his horns, and the large bronze warhammer he carried, he was stark naked.

And yes. Easily a foot long. And he wasn't even hard.

Activating my Appraise Enemy skill, I struggled for a moment to get it to target the minotaur, and not the car I was observing him through. I had no interest in standing up, until I had more information on what we were dealing with.

Finally the skill engaged, and the blue window containing the meager information flashed to life for a moment, indicating that it was indeed a minotaur. A level 9 minotaur.

I would rather fight an entire goblin patrol, as I could outrun those, if things got bad, but this guy had long legs, and probably the literal stamina of a bull.

Clearly he was too powerful to be a regular spawn, leaving me to suspect that he was some sort of neighborhood boss, or perhaps had wandered out of some sort of dungeon, if such a thing even existed yet. If they didn't, I had no doubt they would. I had consumed enough JRPG's to know that such fit the theme way too much to not be a part of this new reality.

Part of me wanted to sneak after the minotaur, tailing him to figure out the answers to the questions his presence posed. Fortunately a far larger part of me was opposed to suicide, and getting discovered by the minotaur was just that.

I knew nothing about its skills or powers, but even with just its obvious size and strength, combined with it outleveling the both of us, risking a fight with it would almost certainly end badly. Perhaps with a proper ambush and surprise on our side, we might be able to handle it.

What kept me considering it longer than I should have, was pure and simple greed. I wanted the experience points, and I very much wanted the gold it wore on its horns. With the size of that beast, those gold bands must be worth quite a bit.

Not worth more than our lives, though. Besides, I had easier loot in mind, so all we had to do, was wait for the minotaur to wander off on whatever business it was about.

When it suddenly paused, as if it sensed something, and started sniffing the air, moving its massive head from side to side, I almost had a heart attack.

It was a good hundred yards away, but I had not thought to take our scent into consideration. I was a spellblade, not some sort of Aragorn rip-off, that would consider things like scent and wind direction when sneaking around.

As I was about to panic and tell Amber to flee, the minotaur seemed to catch whatever scent it was sniffing for, and suddenly exploded into motion, shoving a car aside as he started to accelerate.

Fortunately he was heading away from us, a fact I was very thankful for, as he put on even more speed than I had imagined he would be able to.

Good call not messing with that bull, I very much did not fancy testing his horns.

In a few levels, or with a larger party, perhaps.

But not today.

As the minotaur went around a corner, in search of whatever luckless bastard he was tracking, I waved Amber forward.

"Now is our chance, let's move!" I whispered, as she got close enough.

She looked rather doubtful.

"Are you sure?" She whispered back, not moving.

"Yes. Follow me!"

I put an edge of command in my voice, and started to move, certain she would have no choice but to do as I wanted.

"Shit. Wait. Fuck." I heard her curse, though thankfully at very low volume.

I didn't dare stop, we were committed now, so we had to keep going.

Darting between the parked cars, we made a dash across the road, squeezed past the cars parked on the other side, and finally dashed into the alley between two blocks of buildings.

Sliding into cover once more, heart pounding in my chest. Not from the short sprint across the street, but from lingering fear the minotaur might double back and spot us. Or catch our scent.

"Finally, we are here!" I exclaimed softly.

Amber looked around, confusion plain on her face.

"The nursing home? All this for the nursing home?"

"Not quite. It is also an elder care center, complete with physiotherapists, a gym, and a lot of other stuff. But more importantly..." I paused, patting the other wall.

"There is also the dentist next door that caters to all the dental needs of the old folk. THAT is what we are here for!" I finally revealed.

"I know toothaches suck, but I am pretty sure they are closed. But maybe there is a dentist among the people at the highschool?" Amber informed me helpfully.

"Ah, no. My teeth are fine. But the elder center is quite large, which means the dentist catering to them got a lot of business. And with old people, that means tons of work. Tons of fillings. Gold and silver! THAT is what we are here for!"

"You want to grab old people's fillings?!?" Amber asked incredulously, clearly not getting the idea.

"Well, they are not fillings yet, and any gold we can get will be VERY useful in the System Shop."

"Oookayyy... so why haven't you grabbed it yourself already?"

I started heading down the alley, heading towards the back of the building.

"Well, the front is hardened glass, and would probably take a bazooka or something to get through. Or at least something that would make a lot more noise than I would be comfortable with. And then there is this option."

As we rounded the corner, I indicated the backdoor.

It had an old fashioned wooden door, that perhaps I might have been able to get open with a crowbar, without making too much noise, if not for the roll down metal mesh, that was locked in place with embedded lock that I had no idea how to defeat with the skills and equipment I had in my possession.

But now that I had Amber with me, things should be different.

"How are we going to get past that? I didn't see you bring any bolt cutters, and even if you did, I doubt it would be enough." Amber asked, trying hard to not suggest I had lost my mind.

"Well. I figured you would use these, and then we will see what's behind the door at least." I said, handing her a small envelope of bobby pins.

"Bobby pins?"

"I know, I know, it looks stupid." I said, interrupting her eye rolling session.

"Bobby pins are the minimum requirement for you to use your lockpicking skill, that is part of your class. And while the locks look daunting, the thing is, they are not System locks. Any lock not part of the System, is going to be rated as simple as best, so not only should you be able to pick them, you should also get some nice experience points for doing so."

Even if her class was meant for stuff like this, it was obvious that Amber did not really have a clue how to proceed. A bit of random theft was more her thing, but she had probably never done any burglary, instead trusting her charm to open any doors she wanted to get past.

"Here, let me help get you started." I said, taking a single bobby pin from the envelope, working the ends back and forth a bit, until the little nubs broke off, then snapped it in two.

Bending the straight side to create a tiny little tension lever, I put it and the rakey bit into the lock, in the approximate position to pick it. While I had seen countless videos on the internet on how to pick locks, sadly I had no skill in it under the system, so it had to be Amber doing it.

"Alright, now grab these and try to wiggle them around, see if you can get your class skills to take over."

Giving me a final doubtful side eye, she stepped up and did as I asked.

At first she gave it a rather half hearted wiggle, and just as she was clearly about to give up, something happened.

Suddenly her fingers started to move with a purpose, small precise movements that no lockpicking lawyer could have done any better, and in a moment the lock gave a click, the entire roller grille contraption shifted slightly, as the lock disengaged.

"I... Did it?" Amber exclaimed.

"Yeah, I never had any doubts you would." I lied.

In truth, I had not been entirely certain she could, as I did not really know how the lockpicking skill worked. But if a thief did not have a fair chance to open the lowest ranked locks with the lowest ranked tools, then what was the purpose?

This was a thing I had been contemplating. In this new reality, confusing as it might seem, anything to do with the System had to make sense in some way.

In our old reality, things did not have to make sense. I mean, just look at magnets.

But with the System in place, everything would ultimately be ruled by some skill or mechanic that could be understood. Perhaps even exploited. I was certainly going to keep my eyes open for any opportunities.

As Amber cleared her throat to get my attention, I brought my focus back to our current situation.

"Ah yes. I'll just..." I started, as I bent down and pulled the grille upwards. It rattled a bit, but it was not too bad. It should not carry too far. Or at least I hoped it wouldn't.

Just in case I was that lucky, I tried the door, but it held firm. Probably locked.

"Amber, if you would please do the honors?"

Nodding her head, she stepped up to the door with newfound confidence.

Placing the improvised picks in the lock like she had seen me do, she once again started to wiggle them around a bit.

"Try moving them more like how your skill made you do, that should make activating it easier." I suggested, when nothing seemed to happen for a long moment.

Amber let out an annoyed sound, but did as I suggested. She had barely started, when I noticed her movements become a lot more precise, and with a few rakes of the pick, the lever suddenly turned the lock.

CLICK

Once again, the lock audibly disengaged. It must be an effect added by the System, as no ordinary door lock I knew of, made a noise like that when you unlocked it. Probably a side effect of Amber's lockpicking skill being so low.

She was about to open the door, but my hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"I think I should take point, until we know more about what is in there. I can take a hit better than you." I added the last part, when I saw her face darken, figuring she was annoyed I did not trust her to explore ahead of me. Her frown turned to a smile, when I made the point it was because I worried she might get hurt, and she stepped back and gestured for me to go on ahead.

Putting on my bravest face, I stepped up to the door, and paused to listen, my ear against the wood.

I could only hear the pounding of my own heart.

You would think I had gotten more used to danger by now. Gotten braver. I had grown more used to ignoring my fear, but it was certainly still there.

Since listening did not seem to yield any useful information, I shrugged, and tried to be as quiet as possible when I opened the door.

Unlike the conspicuously loud lock, the System did not seem to have any opinion on the noise a door should make, so it opened with the ordinary quietness of most modern doors, making my effort at stealth rather redundant.

Opening the door revealed a long wide carpeted corridor with several doors on either side. Boxes left in the corridor and what looked like a large industrial printer clued me in that this was probably some sort of administration wing, and not the part we were looking for.

Inside it was somewhat gloomy, with some light filtering in through glass doors at the other end, and from the open door I was currently darkening with my presence.

Realizing that any attempt at stealth would be rather futile, being backlit by the sunlight from outside like I was, and not noticing any immediate threat, I gestured for Amber to follow, and quickly moved inside.

As Amber entered, I closed the door quietly behind us, and offered a quick prayer of thanks that we had not gotten some sort of notification as we entered, welcoming us to some sort of dungeon.

From the hints provided by the System, I had no doubt that dungeons and advanced monster spawns would start to be seeded in places where people failed to keep the monster population pruned back.

I had not been able to find any firm guidelines on when and how that might happen, but I felt confident that we would have gotten some sort of System Message, if we had entered a dungeon.

"So what's next?" Amber said, much too loudly for my tastes.

I cringed instinctively at the sudden breach of the silence of the place, and whirled around.

"Hush! Hide!" I whispered frantically, gesturing for her to duck down behind some boxes.

She must have assumed we were safe inside the building, an assumption I most certainly did not yet dare share, but at the sight of my reaction, she turned pale and ducked down without any sign of protest.

I had to remind myself she was still much newer to this, than I, and ultimately it was my fault for not giving her more thorough instructions to begin with.

We remained hiding behind the boxes for a few long moments. Briefly I gave the boxes a once over, hoping against hope, that they might contain a deliverance of precious metals, but it seemed like more ordinary consumables.

I had expected nothing else, as I think any deliverance of such items would be put in a more secure place as soon as it arrived.

When my heart rate started to reach a more normal level again, I was about to give Amber the sign to follow me, when I heard a thump, like someone bumping into something.

Then another, and a low groan.

Then the door knob on a nearby door started to rattle, like someone was just pawing at it from the other side, rather than trying to operate it properly.

The cowardly part of me insisted that it must be a trap, and we should just run away now, to forget about all of the metals I wanted to loot.

The braver part of me, or perhaps just the greedier part reminded me that if I did that, I might as well go join the townies, and prepare myself for becoming part of a roaming gang of cannibals, once supplies ran out.

No, I needed those metals to sell for skills and spells in the System Kiosk, it was the only way I could see to get ahead of the curve. I was not going to be scared away by a little bit of noise.

As my courage won, and my cowardice made it's cowardly retreat, I started to formulate what little I could of a plan.

First I took a minute to fiddle with the lock on the door behind us, setting it to engage the lock if we slammed it behind us, and wedging a bit of cardboard in it so that it would not accidentally lock behind us, while we moved in further.

Satisfied we had an escape route that might buy us a minute or two, if whatever followed us had as much trouble with doors, as whatever was on the other side of the rattling door.

While I primed the door, I quickly relayed what little plan I had to Amber, and while she did not look keen on it, she did nod her head, and seemed to steel her nerves against what might come.

Getting into position, sword out, I waited for the doorknob to rattle again, and as soon as it did, I twisted the knob, and violently shoved the door with the shoulder I had set against it, ramming it against whatever was on the other side.

With a thump and a groan, I swept it aside, and the door opened up to what looked like a small break room.

An actual zombie was going ass over teakettle, arms flailing as it got flung over the back of a couch, seemed to be the reason for the doorknob rattling, and I was glad I had gone with a forceful entry, instead of just knocking politely.

As zombies go, I guess it was a rather dapper one. Dressed in a pencil skirt and what had probably been a fancy white blouse, before it got all kinds of zombie stains on it, she looked to have been a typical office worker handling the administrative side of things.

A quick, almost instinctive use of my Appraise Enemy confirmed my suspicion.

The blue screen flashing into existence briefly stated it was a level 3 zombie.

Normally I would not consider a single level 3 monster a threat at my new level, but the real threat was the unknown number of them that might be nearby.

As I rushed into the room, managing a leap over the couch and zombie, I managed to glance over my shoulder to see Amber following through with the plan, shutting the door behind her more quietly than I had opened it a moment before.