Dungeons and Dalliances

7.48 – Next Assignments

The return trip was uneventful. Tiring and fraught with monsters, naturally, but uneventful.

The trek to the nearest tower, clearing it, and returning to the City had taken enough time that when they returned, the next cycle of assignments had been posted. Natalie had heard the change-over bell ringing from the city center even half an hour’s distance away.

This second bell was the 'midnight bell', not that there were real day-night cycles in the City of Eros. The twilight sky never changed, the collection of stars and glowing moon having hung in the same spot since her arrival. Yet the city folk had collaborated to form a schedule for organization's sake. Thus, the streets were near empty when they returned, as expected of a city past midnight.

Natalie's body was feeling the day's exertions. They'd woken early to start the weekend delve, and it had been close to twenty hours of high effort activities since she'd last slept. She was looking forward to re-acquainting herself with that plush bed in her Palace room. And she said another thankful prayer that there would be a bed. Most dungeon trips, sleeping conditions were much rougher.

Before she slept, though, should she check what assignment she'd gotten? Or afterward? There was no need to rush out and complete the task immediately, since she would have a few hours after waking to handle it. But if the task ended up being too strange, she could see herself staying awake out of—not anxiety, but anticipation, maybe.

Or the former. Who knew? Assignments could get crazy in this City. Though there was always the option to skip if what was asked of her was too uncomfortable. She wasn't like Vanetta; this was no new dilemma. She would place comfort over progress. Accepting whatever degeneracy the dungeon asked simply to earn experience or loot faster was a slippery slope, and one she'd decided to not go plummeting down. Not head-first and willingly, at least.

Since the rest of her team bee-lined to the assignment boards after returning, Natalie also tagged along, somewhat reluctantly. She would have preferred to wait until morning. Holding her breath, she found the board with her name on it and tracked down the appropriate slip of paper.

Before laying eyes on her task, she had been certain what she was about to find: an assignment in the Coliseum with Elida. The tension was there, a part of her acknowledged, and the City had a specific interest in Natalie with her being Lust's champion. Not to mention Elida's own status as god-favored. Put together? Their clash in the Coliseum was inevitable.

Yet—

Report to the Arena for your solo assignment.

She almost didn't parse the words. Not that they were strange. Just, she'd expected more. If not a Coliseum event—and she'd been so sure that she would get one the moment Elida showed up—then at least something more adventurous. Perhaps a task that bucked all standard trends, even?

Maybe she wasn't special. Her cheeks colored at the possibility. Did she have an inflated sense of importance? The City could be treating her the same as anyone else. So even if there was the requisite tension with Elida, it might take time before a slot at the Coliseum opened up for them. Paladin of Lust or not.

Either way, she was grateful. While the looming 'solo stakes' were sure to be interesting in their own right, she at least didn't have to fall asleep knowing the moment she woke she'd be heading off to fight against Elida—with sexual favors as the reward for winning.

No Coliseum also meant her sleep wouldn't be interrupted. She appreciated that. Time slots for Coliseum ran through the night on the same hourly block schedule as the daytime, and she easily could have gotten one at four in the morning. Not that there was a real 'four in the morning', since again, time wasn't real in the City.

She supposed that nighttime Coliseum events might be more palatable than daytime ones. Fewer spectators. Or maybe the smaller audience would make it more intimate, not less? A crowd was a crowd, faceless and meaningless to some extent. Two or three people peeping in, though, felt—worse. Sort of? Natalie shook her head and stopped thinking about it.

Without meaning to, she found herself wandering over to Vanetta to see what she'd gotten. Vanetta had, since their team had reunited, reverted to stony silence, so Natalie brightened when the other girl glanced over, hesitated, and actually grimaced at her—the first real emote she'd seen in a while.

She murmured to Natalie, "Bordello. Not sure if I'm gonna take it."

"Ah." Natalie thought about how she would feel getting that assignment. "Not sure if I would either, to be fair."

"You wouldn't?"

"That surprises you?"

"You just seem, ah, open. To things."

Natalie shrugged. "Something about doing it with total strangers, I'm not sure I like."

She gave Natalie a skeptical look. "There's no way you haven't hooked up with 'total strangers' before."

"Well. Sure." She tried to sort through her thoughts, but found there were some logical inconsistencies. "Even if I get to pick my clients—and we don't even know if it works like that— something doesn't sit right with me." Random hookups had some basic level of chemistry before things got hot and heavy, however brief. And even if she found that with a client at the Bordello…? She shrugged. "Not sure I can make it make sense. I just don't want to, and that's enough for me to skip."

"You'd be missing out on tokens."

"Who cares?"

"I care. For myself, I mean. You can do what you want."

This was no new conversation, and Natalie sighed. She'd said her piece on it already. Hesitating for a moment, her lips quirked up. "Well. Maybe you can stop by to see how it works. And if you do get to pick your clients—I can pay a visit? That way you'd get your tokens, and it doesn't have to be with a stranger. But I've got my own Arena assignment before that. Would you be interested?"

Vanetta's cheeks colored, and she glanced around to check for eavesdroppers.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"We'll see," she coughed. "But, um, yes. I might—prefer that. Over strangers. It might make the assignment tolerable."

Natalie's grin might've been a little too satisfied, because Vanetta narrowed her eyes and poked her in the chest.

"But only because it's better than strangers. Don't get any weird ideas."

"I would never."

Huffing, Vanetta spun and stalked toward the other three of their teammates, who had collected in their own sub-group. Following her, Natalie went to see what the rest of her teammates had gotten, assignment wise.