My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem - My Dungeon Life - Chapter 37-39

Chapter 37

It seems that I erred a bit. I had let Lydia into my sheets because I felt bad and wanted to seem cool at that moment. The result was that I really struggled to sleep. Lydia’s arm ended up over my chest and her face was right at my neck. Every time she exhaled, I could smell her sweet breath and feel the warmth of it right on my neck. I had never been this close to a girl before. My previous attempts to ask girls out went as disastrously as that last one, and so this was completely outside my territory.

She was incredibly pretty. By all accounts, I shouldn’t even be that attracted to her. She probably hadn’t bathed in days. She was dirty, she had no makeup on, and she was literally wearing my spare shirt. Yet, it took all of my control to keep myself from pushing her down. The fact that she was trained as a courtesan made me keep thinking about all the dirty things she must know. I had grown up in the internet age, so I had seen my share of erotic stuff, but she actually had hands-on experience. Well, she was a virgin, but she had to at least have practiced on a banana or something!

If I bought her… could I have her? She already called me master. This relationship was master-slave already. Couldn’t I just push things into the sex slave territory? Would that really be so wrong? No… that would be wrong. She wasn’t mine, and even if I bought her, I should free her, because that was the right thing to do. If I took advantage of a slave, how could I look my family in the eyes when I passed away? Well, who knew if any of their souls could even reach this world, let alone make it down to this dungeon.

By the time morning came along, I had fled the covers and was preparing breakfast myself. Lydia was still in the sheets, but she woke up and lifted her head with a yawn. My shirt hung down, giving me just a glimpse down her shirt as she looked up at me with cute cat ears twitching on her head. Ah! I burned myself!

“Weak Heal…” I sighed, finally able to resist looking at her for a bit.

Healing was advantageous in this instance. Being able to cure burns was really nice. No, I wasn’t paying attention to the rustling behind me as she changed back into her old slave outfit which fit her better. I had washed it the best I could with water and sewed the rips I could. It still looked tattered, but her body was no longer exposed to me.

“What are you making?” She asked, finally completely dressed.

Keeping my eyes from roaming over her body, I explained. “This is something I came up with myself.”

It was basically just sweet rice with some meat. As soon as I poured the contents in separate bowls for Lydia and me, text crossed my vision.

{You have created your own dish. You have unlocked the job: Cook.}

Oh, wonderful. Now I could cook as well as Lydia. It was just a shame that in two days we’d have nothing left to eat and would effectively starve.

Chapter 38

“Let’s just take it easy,” I reiterated, “One zombie at a time.”

By the way, I did equip Cook. The first skill for Cook is something called Collect. I don’t know what Collect does, but it didn’t seem like something that would help us survive. I still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something in Cook that could get us past our predicament. Thus, after casting a spell on her sword and stunning the monster with Harm Undead, I equipped Cook as the battle was ending.

I got Cook up two more levels, while her Swordsman reached level six. Her skills were still a mystery to me, but my own skills were Increase Food Drop and Basic Cooking. Basic Cooking wasn’t really a skill at all. Rather, it was something passive that didn’t need to be cast at all. Simply put, I had the knowledge to cook in my head. I already had some knowledge, but as I thought about ingredients, more knowledge came to me than I remembered I possessed, including details about food that didn’t exist in my old world.

When I described this to Lydia, she nodded. “That’s what happened to me when you gave me the sword. I suddenly knew how to wield it. I feel like if I keep using it, I can get even better!”

So, that’s how it was. Jobs weren’t just special skills, but the basic knowledge of the job too. There was probably a Moderate Cooking skill and an Advanced Cooking skill too. As I leveled up, even if it was done by killing monsters and not actually cooking, my levels would skyrocket. It seemed like every job had two means of gaining experience. Killing monsters was the most traditional way, and it benefited every job. The second way was job-specific. For example, a Cook gained experience by cooking. A Courtesan gained experience by… well, you know. The point being, in this world, one could bypass having to learn to do something simply by leveling the job.

That would seem really OP, but people usually only had one job, and could only get that job with the ability of a priest. It was expensive and difficult. Then, you’d need to pay a soldier to help you fight mobs. Meanwhile, you’d be at risk for your life the entire time. That’s what it’d take to rapidly level up in a field with monsters. I could quickly see why this was not something most people did.

Still, the important thing was that I had learned Increased Food Drop. That meant that monsters we killed could drop food like they dropped other items. However, drops were rare, and we only found maybe 1 after an entire day of killing monsters. But… if that drop was edible, the level should be much higher. That meant I needed to find a monster that would drop some sort of food. Neither the Living Armor nor zombies would be dropping any food I’d want.

“We need to push on to the seventh floor,” I told her.

Our only hope was that there was something in this dungeon that dropped edible food. I had abandoned the thought that we could complete the dungeon before we starved. Lydia nodded, and we continued to explore the 6th level, desperately looking for the staircase down.

Chapter 39

“So, here we are…” I said, my voice taking on just a bit of melancholy.

We had found the stairway to the next floor, but two Living Armors were in front of it. The only reason we were able to fight zombies is that our jobs happened to mesh well against slow undead. My spells were literally their bane, and her speed made her difficult to handle. However, when we were facing these guys, the fact that their levels far outstripped our own became very apparent. They were like a level 15 mob, where we were around level six.

“What should we do?” Lydia asked nervously.

I looked down at the sword hanging from my backpack and let out a sigh. “We’re going to need to git gud.”

“Good?”

“You must increase your Swordsman to level ten, and I must increase Hero,” I explained.

“It is unfortunate that we do not know our job levels now,” Lydia spoke sadly.

I blinked. “Uh, actually, I know your job and level. You’re a level six Swordsman right now!”

“You’re like a priest!” Lydia was truly surprised.

I hadn’t really said anything about it to her before, but I supposed I should explain myself. “Yes, I wasn’t trying to hide it, but since you joined my party, I can see your class and job, and I can also change your job if I want to.”

“Amazing…” Lydia’s eyes looked at me fully opened like she was seeing me for the first time. “I only know of priests that can do that, but even they can’t change their own job.”

Of course. If a priest changed their job, they’d lose the skill that allowed them to change their job. Since my ability came from my class, not my job, it was a bit powerful. Admittedly, this world didn’t even know about classes as far as I could tell. The closest thing they had to class was the idea of talent. A talented person could learn their job faster. This was a bit of mistake on this world’s part. Everyone had their talents. If someone was too slow, it was probably because they had the wrong job!

“Well, I’m a bit different, but it’s similar.” I blushed at her look of reverence.

“I’m already level six Swordsman… that’s the level of most city guards. Does that mean it was you who set this job for me?”

“Ah… yes…” I responded sheepishly, feeling bad for doing this without her permission.

“Thank you!” She said, her eyes growing watery.

I scratched the back of my head and fought the embarrassment as she looked at me with strangely expectant eyes. I never had anyone who looked at me that way before. What was it? It felt like… dependence. That’s right, this girl was depending on me to pull her through this dungeon. Through my entire life, I had never had anyone who expected anything from me. This feeling from her, I kind of liked it. I wanted to save her. Not just from this dungeon, but from her former life too. Perhaps the hero title was infecting my brain.

We left the two Living Armors alone, and for the rest of the day, our target was zombies. I’d cast the spell to strengthen both of our swords, and then we would both fight. She did much more than I did, but I still could collect the money. I wasn’t as fast as her, nor did I have any sword knowledge. The best I could do is hit an enemy in the back when it was turned and run away. That meant I usually only got one strike on them. That was compared to the dozens that Lydia landed.

I also noticed that my Party Status Up seemed to work on her too. That was to say, when I had Hero equipped as a job, Lydia said she felt a little faster, and the zombies seemed to fall faster too. It did seem to be doing its job. I just wished I was a little more helpful.

{Hero has increased to level 5.}

{You have unlocked the Hero skill: Basic Swordsmanship.}

I let out a sigh of relief. This just told me two things. First, skills overlapped between jobs. Second, that despite my support class influencing my skills towards support, I could still potentially learn combat abilities. I wouldn’t be completely useless. I felt the sword in my hand, and it felt a lot more comfortable holding it. This appeared to be a passive skill, that when active, gave me the knowledge of basic swordsmanship. As luck would have it, Basic Swordsmanship was likely the first level of Swordsman, which is why Lydia could wield a sword from the beginning. I had guessed something like this was true. That was also why I wanted her to get to level ten. I had a feeling that whatever the next level of swordsmanship came, it would be at level ten. With myself gaining Basic Swordsmanship, I felt we were on our way.