Dark Fate: Book 2 – The First Night
: Chapter 17

We left the fool’s body in the hallway as I led the way into my apartment. It was a one bed, one bath, living room and kitchen affair. Nothing fancy, but it was fine for tonight. Tomorrow, we would start looking for a new place to live.

Both Hibari and Rachel gasped as I placed my hand upon their heads, and spent the mana to teach them the [Carnal Arts] skill. I smiled at their reactions, which had mirrored Talia’s own. It was impossible to have that knowledge suddenly thrust into your head without it exciting you, after all.

“H-how?”

I looked over to Rachel, and chuckled before answering her question. “I am a Slave Master. One of the abilities of my profession is to make it easier for slaves to learn new skills. I can either guide them, reducing the cost, or I can teach them directly, paying Mana to give them one of my skills. If your former master did not know that, then he was even more of an idiot than I thought.”

Hibari bit her lip, and asked, “Then, Master, you mean that you have this [Carnal Arts] skill?”

I answered Hibari by pulling her into my embrace, and sealing her lips with a kiss. My tongue entwined with hers, and my hands roamed across her body. When I finally released her, her eyes were wide, and her breath came in excited pants.

“Oh. Oh my.”

I released her then, and began removing my clothes, using the mending spell on them as I did so. “Strip, all of you. I’m going to enjoy the three of you all night long.”

And I did.

The next morning, I awoke in a pile of bodies. It was possible for four people to fit on a double mattress, of course, if they huddled close enough together. Hibari and Talia curled up against me, my arm wrapped around each of them. Rachel’s head lay against my chest, where she had collapsed when I had finally allowed her to rest, my cock still sheathed within her.

I smiled as I looked at my pets. All three of them were sporting some of the items I had ‘inherited’ from the idiot, Billy, and brought to me with [Item Summoning]. He had apparently been a wannabe dom with more money than sense, but that was fine, as I now had all of his money and ‘toys’. Each girl had a leather collar around their necks, in slightly different styles, but each having a ring to attach a leash to. And each one had a ‘princess’ plug inserted in their rears, with different colored jewels. They were not real jewels, of course, but that did not matter. Apparently, the fool had either had delusions of increasing the number of pets he owned, or he liked to mix and match toys according to his mood. Either way, it served me well.

I felt the women begin to stir around me, and briefly considered some morning fun. But there was plenty we had to do today. This room, this building, was not an appropriate lair. I needed something more substantial. The loot I’d gained from the duel mentioned a house, as well as other things. said, “Get up, you three. This room was fine, for a night, but we will gather your things, and then set out to replace someplace new, where we’ll be able to properly stretch out.”

I was watching as Rachel opened her eyes. Her green eyes met mine, and then she looked down, realizing the position she was still in, and a red blush spread across her face. Talia’s giggle from beside me did nothing to help her embarrassment. Fortunately, her friend decided not to tease her too badly, at least at the moment.

After everyone was up and dressed, I walked out to the kitchen table, and pulled cereal, milk, bowls, and utensils from my inventory. I would need to get some kind of rations later, probably from a System Shop, but, for now, the contents of my fridge and pantry (along with Talia and Rachel’s), kept in stasis by the magic of the inventory, would be enough to keep things from going bad. But four mouths would run through those supplies fairly quickly. We would have to stop by Hibari’s apartment later, and see what we could salvage, though other scavengers might have already gotten to it.

When everyone had finished eating and washing up, I shifted into my ‘human’ guise, and looked at them all, and said, “The world as you knew it has ended. You’ve all seen the monsters that have appeared, and you’ve all witnessed how people have powers that were frankly impossible before the System. This is just the beginning. Things will get worse, much worse, before they get better. Fortunately for you, I know what I’m doing, since I’ve done this before.”

I paused, and then said, “Talia and I have already packed what we need. Rachel and Hibari, we will stop by your apartments, and see if there is anything salvageable that you wish to take with you. Then, we’re heading out. We need a base of operations, and this apartment building is too open and hard to defend. When the real monsters start showing up, the more powerful monsters, we won’t be able to put up a reliable defense here.”

Looking over to Rachel, I asked, “Where did Billy live, and what kind of place is it?”

Rachel took a breath, and said, “Billy’s parents are rich, so they bought him a house out in Hosag Hills. Well, it is more than just a house. That’s a real high-end area, after all. His house is surrounded by a wall, and sits on sixteen acres of land. Eight bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a pool, as well as recreation areas. There’s an extensive basement as well.”

I nodded. “Good, that’s good. We’ll head to my new house, then, and set up there. We’ll probably want to go on foot. Any vehicles that are running will be obvious targets, both for anyone desperate, and for the cops who are trying to restore order. Not to mention the monsters that are going to continue spawning throughout the city.”

Rachel’s eyes went wide. “But that’s sixteen miles, at least! We’ll be walking all day!”

I grinned at her. “Not all day. Just five, maybe six hours of actual walking. The fighting we’re going to have to do along the way is what might slow us down somewhat. Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

Rachel and Talia’s apartment was as we had left it the day before. It didn’t take long for Rachel to gather up the few things she wanted to keep, and shove them into her inventory. There were a few personal items with emotional attachments, but most of it was more practical things, like changes of clothes, and a small document safe that was hidden in the bottom of her closet.

Monsters had begun respawning throughout the night. Sometimes, they were taken down by people who had been keeping watch. But, more often, they were simply still there, both sides hunkering down overnight, to try and figure out what they were going to do.

For the goblins that respawned, the answer was simple. They would regroup, and gather in larger numbers, so they could take down stronger foes. And that was just if it was only goblins. More powerful monsters would start spawning today, and going into the future. Getting a base of operations, which we could secure against monsters, would become more and more important as time went on.

We had just entered the corridor again after Rachel loaded up what she wanted from her room, only for the silence to be broken by the elevator’s chime. From the elevator came six goblins, all level 3. We didn’t have time to hide, or make any sort of plan. The goblins saw us immediately, and yelled a challenge.

The hallway was too narrow for more than two of us to fight side by side. That was fine, however, because two were all that were needed. Quickly, I shouted commands, as I drew my sword. “Talia, by me. Rachel, support Talia. Hibari, strike where you can.”

The girls moved into position, though only Talia had any real confidence as she did so. Glancing over the goblins as they charged, I cursed inwardly. There were six of them, sure, but they were not so simple as the ones from yesterday. Two were armed with crude swords and shields, while another had a pair of daggers, and a fourth carried a crude shortbow. Behind them, though, were the real threats.

One of the goblins had the skull hat that marked them as a shaman. That was dangerous enough, as Hibari’s story of how she had been captured made clear. However, I was more worried about the last goblin.

That one was dressed in black, and carried a staff with a skull upon it. Black marks covered the goblin’s face, like tribal markings. But they were so much worse when combined with the chanting invocation the goblin was uttering. Those were the hallmarks of a goblin necromancer. They were not known for their firepower, as far as spells went, but they could use the spirits of goblins slain to reanimate the dead, and amplify their powers. And there were a LOT of goblins that had been slain recently, just in this building!

As one of the shield goblins approached, I lashed out with my foot, hitting squarely upon the goblin’s shield. With my Strength, the goblin found himself being thrown back, knocking over the archer as he tumbled to the ground. He had probably taken some damage. How much, I didn’t know, but I knew he was not uninjured, but that wouldn’t be enough to kill him. I didn’t need to kill the goblin in a single blow, however, because it gave me a bit of breathing room. “Hibari, the one in black is priority target!”

Talia blocked, parried, and evaded as the dual dagger goblin tried to attack her, while the second shield goblin moved forward, cowering behind his shield, bracing himself so that I couldn’t simply kick him away, like I had done to the other one. The goblin wasn’t trying to strike me, however. His goal was to keep me away from the dagger goblin, or the two casters in the rear.

Without the enhanced senses provided by my increased attributes, I would have missed it. One moment, Hibari was behind me, hiding in my shadow from the goblins. I felt the slight pressure of a foot against my shoulder, pushing off, towards the enemy. The next instant, there was a flash of light in the hallway, and the black-clad goblin necromancer’s chanting was abruptly silenced, the goblin’s head falling away from its shoulders. There, behind the goblin necromancer’s body, which was only now collapsing to the ground, was Hibari, goblin blood dripping from her twin wakizashi.

The goblins all paused in shock at the sudden death, but the rest of us did not. My blade sung in the air, infused with the power of my [Spellblade] spell, and quickly cut down the shield user in front of me. Talia’s magic enhanced fist slammed into the dual dagger goblin’s face, followed up quickly by a series of kicks, elbows, and knees which left the unfortunate goblin’s corpse lying face-down upon the floor.

The remaining goblins were starting to recover from their moment of panic, but a bolt from Rachel’s basic crossbow slammed into the shaman’s shoulder, even as he turned and was about to cast a spell upon the ninja that was far too close at hand for his liking. His spell went wide, splattering inconsequentially upon the nearby wall. Soon, Hibaris’s blades claimed another goblin life, even as the archer and remaining shield goblins met their end.

The goblin weapons were not even worth inspecting. I knew from experience that they would be crap. However, I threw them, with all the rest of the loot, into my inventory. Eventually, we would replace a System shop, and we could sell those items there, and at least get a bit of actual use from the weapons.

With that patrol finished, made our way to the emergency stairs. There was blood here, from the time we had fought a goblin into a corner here, and then realized that, without hover technology, it was trapped on one level, while I could move about as I pleased. Regardless, everything was clear, for now. Fortunately, we made it to the fourth floor without running across any other goblins.

Unfortunately, Hibari’s apartment was not in as pristine a state as Talia’s was, something that was immediately obvious when we saw the shattered door barely hanging on to its hinges. We could hear voices, and sounds of people moving around in the room. Guess we got here just as it was being looted. I drew my sword as I led the way into the room.