Ryan then realized that Helen's persistence wasn't just about training, but about spending time alone with him.
To Ryan, even though Helen was the most blunt girl with her words, he also recognized her strengths and the brilliance she usually showed when it came to protecting her companions.
"My body is starting to feel strange. It's been a while since I was under the effect of your skill..." Helen murmured, looking at him with her bright blue eyes, while her straight black hair brushed against her cheeks in the wind.
'If you look at me like that, it's going to be hard to hold back.'
Helen wrapped her arms around Ryan's neck and clung to him, her chest pressing against Ryan's body.
"So, what kind of punishment will it be this time?" Helen murmured to herself with a smile before starting to kiss him.
Ryan returned the kiss and grabbed Helen by the waist.
He squeezed her waist with some force, causing Helen to let out a short moan.
"Even you can make those kinds of sounds, huh," Ryan commented with a teasing smile.
"Shut up..." Helen replied with flushed cheeks and kissed him again.
Now their tongues met in a subtle dance, moving around each other and then sucking.
'Helen's lips and tongue feel... really good.'
Ryan pulled Helen even closer to his body, and his knee pressed against her crotch. And they continued kissing as she rubbed against his leg.
They continued kissing for a long moment, until the system notification appeared, signaling that the debt had been collected.
[Debt collection applied]
[Debt Bonus: +50 points]
[Debt Bonus: +45,000 EXP]
[Luck Bonus: +50 points]
[Luck Bonus: +45,000 EXP]
Level: 72 → 73
[Level bonus: +40 points]
[Attributes increased: +20 to all stats]
Ryan stared at the system window in detail, but it looked as if he was staring directly into Helen's eyes.
"...Ryan... don't look at me like that... it makes me more nervous to see your intense green eyes so close..."
'Is she acting shy now? How cute. But her mouth feels so good that I want more...'
He continued kissing her passionately. They spent a few minutes like that, where they barely paused briefly to breathe.
She was holding him tightly.
'The effects of the debt have already passed, but she doesn't want to stop.'
After a moment, she slowly pulled away from him, a thin trail of saliva connecting their tongues.
She looked at him, still blushing.
"Do you understand now? Whatever you do with Karol and Mirian, I want you to do it with me too..." She said it in a very soft voice, a tone he had never heard coming from her.
At those words, she smiled and took him by the hand to return to the others.
Because it was already time to leave for Varvylon.
Ryan understood that a situation like this wasn't exactly normal. That three beautiful girls wanted to be with him to the point where they didn't care about having to share him was something he could only have imagined while reading some novel.
He wasn't sure if the behavior Helen showed so suddenly was because Mirian or Karol had told her things, or if it was due to the sharp intuition Mirian had once mentioned Helen possessed.
When Ryan returned with Helen to the house to meet up with the party...
They opened the door and had only taken a few steps when a cascade of water burst over them, soaking them completely.
"Ah! There they are!" Karol yelled.
"...What is this!" Helen screamed and noticed that her entire body was soaking wet.
"..."
'What the hell is going on here.'
Mirian approached them, laughing.
"Ha ha ha, I can't believe it worked, or maybe this is the opposite result?" she asked herself with serious doubts.
"Stop laughing. This is Karol's doing, isn't it?" Helen asked, gripping her sword.
"Sorry, sorry, I was just using a search spell. But it went wrong because my psyche isn't high enough."
"Tsk," Helen clicked her tongue and walked away.
"I'm going to change clothes."
"Is there really a spell like that?" Ryan asked with curiosity.
"Yeah, how to put it... there are times when a dungeon gives you a scroll with skills you can use. But when you use them, the scroll is consumed and you need certain attributes to activate them. If not... then they fail."
"And is that what happened?" Ryan asked, looking at how his whole body was drenched.
"I think so. If that's what happened, activating it required a higher psyche than I currently have without my staff, but since I'm so powerful, I thought it would work if I used it like that. Now I think I should have just sold the scroll; it was the only one I had."
'How foolish...'
But Ryan wasn't angry; on the contrary, he was curious about those scrolls Karol mentioned.
Karol explained that they were different from the ones the guild manages to craft, as they mostly can only craft scrolls to inspect adventurers, just like the one Sophia had used to reveal Ryan's party's S-rank.
'I'd like to get one of those.'
But there would be plenty of opportunities to get a scroll; after all, they were going to explore an A-rank dungeon. With his Luck maxed out.
With that thought in mind, Ryan's party prepared to set out.
First, they went to the adventurers' guild to talk to Sophia.
She gave them a map and the directions they needed to get there.
The dungeon exploration was scheduled for two days from now.
And that was roughly the time it would take them to reach the place.
"Though you won't have time to rest. That would be exhausting for any adventurer," Sophia commented.
Then Ryan smiled.
"Of course... for any party of adventurers without a support member."
Upon leaving the guild, they already had the map, the necessary directions, and all that was left was the journey.
"Can you really use flight magic?" Ryan asked.
"Naturally," Karol said, preparing her staff.
"I see..." Ryan nodded.
Then Mirian approached.
"So, is your element wind?" the heroine asked with curiosity.
"Not at all, I have mastered all elements. Didn't I mention that?"
And to the surprise of Mirian and Helen...
She made them all levitate with her magic. With Karol's flight magic activated, they headed toward the nation of Varvylon.
◇◇◇
The journey lasted exactly the amount of time they had estimated.
From the air, they could already see the dungeon rift.
It was massive.
Near the dungeon, there were tents. And people could be seen.
"Looks like quite a few adventurers showed up besides us," Karol commented.
"Well, that was obvious, don't you think?" Helen replied.
'I haven't entered one since the S-rank dungeon, so... I hope to gain plenty of experience here. To be honest, I had considered skipping this place and going to the S-rank dungeon, but with the annoying church keeping their eyes on us...'
'If they followed us and discovered that secret place, it would be quite troublesome. I want to keep that place hidden. Just for us; if we ever need to hide someday, that seems like a good place.'
They finally arrived and descended until their feet touched the ground, and a guard immediately approached them, stating he was managing the site by order of the viscount.
Once Ryan introduced himself, the guard delivered a message from the viscount.
"I hope with all my heart that you find something invaluable in the dungeon," the guard repeated the words the viscount had given him.
Almost everything was ready; the guard began taking the lead; unlike Ryan's party, all the others belonged to Varvylon.
The guard called each adventurer by name and rank; the count came to a total of nineteen adventurers, not including Ryan's party.
None below A-rank.
Now only two remained to be introduced.
"Alina, S-rank."
"Dalia, S-rank."
Hearing about two S-ranks was a bit surprising for Ryan's party, but it was still something they expected since Sophia had already warned them, as demons always try to attack and seal A-rank dungeons.
Ryan used Inspect on the pair of heroines.
[CHARACTER STATUS]
› Race: [Human]
› Level: 110 — Rank: S
› Class: Guardian
› Title: Piece of the Soul.
› Strength: 4,630 | Magic: 290 | Agility: 1,600 | Psyche: 190 | Defense: 3,500 |
'A guardian like Helen.'
[CHARACTER STATUS]
› Race: [Human]
› Level: 110 — Rank: S
› Class: Defender
› Title: Heavy Shield.
› Strength: 2,500 | Magic: 320 | Agility: 1,500 | Psyche: 2,500 | Defense: 6,500 |
They were definitely S-rank. Although their current stats were not higher than Helen's or Mirian's.
Still, they looked very confident. Dalia was clearly a tank, wielding a hammer and a massive shield.
And Alina, a swordsman like Helen.
According to the guard, they would allow everyone to enter at once.
When they began introducing Ryan's party...
At first, there were murmurs and surprise due to Helen's and Mirian's S-rank. They also found Karol's rank interesting; from afar, they commented that it was surely a strong party.
However, the mood shifted when they introduced Ryan.
"Seriously? Why are they bringing a B-rank here? He's just taking advantage of the goodwill of those girls," the adventurers muttered with disdain.
'Yeah, I figured something like this would happen.'
"You'd better go home, kid, this is no place for you." The voice came from Alina, who approached them along with Dalia, who, as she stood before them, dropped her massive shield, kicking up dust.
Helen stepped in front of those S-rank girls.
"You'll swallow those words. Don't come running later begging Ryan to heal you."
"Ha ha ha, I have never needed help from any support. I had expectations for all of you, but I see I was mistaken," she said with contempt.