The Legendary Monster Layer!

Ari supposed she was lucky that Elise was well studied, and stoic by her nature. While she didn’t take Ari’s announcement in stride, per se, she did adjust faster than Ari could’ve hoped for. They picked through the Forest of the Golden Lake, headed for the burrow, and Elise’s questions slowly took coherence, and started coming with more confidence and specificity.

Ari spelled out her class, skills, and what she’d been doing the past several days to the best of her ability. She glazed over the … lewder aspects of everything, though Elise obviously knew what her euphemisms meant. Just, no point in getting into the sticky details.

Ari wished she could know what her friend was thinking. The downside to Elise’s quickly recuperated composure meant that Ari, like usual, couldn’t guess at how she perceived all this. Because seriously … it was so weird. Ari’s class had her turn monsters into girls and fuck them, then bond them? There were odd classes out there, but none like hers.

Elise was also stunned at Ari’s quick advancement. Less than a week past her eighteenth birthday, and she was level five. An unheard-of progression. Or, maybe not the best in the world, but seriously, seriously up there. The ‘exception’ that Sigrid had mentioned during Ari’s professional consultation—the far outlier for level-up speed.

Elise and Claire also made more friendly conversation. As Ari had been, Elise was curious over her existence … what, exactly, it meant that a monster had been turned into a sentient being. Ari had already gone down those branching conversational pathways, but Ari was grateful for the turn in topic simply because it let Ari recover: spelling out her class to Elise had been seriously awkward for her.

Plus, Elise making friends with Claire—and the rest of the Menagerie—would be a best-case scenario. Of course she wanted her best friend, and her newest set of friends, to get along. And though Elise was in the stage of her career that adventuring was far from important, eventually, she would probably want to venture out. Maybe Claire and Lori could help her? Keep her safe, at a minimum. It depended on how Elise wanted to handled her long-term advancement prospects.

By the time they reached the burrow, Elise was mostly caught up. To be fair, there wasn’t that much that needed explaining. Just, every ounce of it was weird. Fortunately, opening with ‘my class makes me have sex with monster girls’ set a tone that was hard to beat; there weren’t any announcements after that one that had Elise gaping at Ari.

Elise paused at a thigh-tall green sprout. “What’s this?”

Ari blinked. It was the hungry vines seed. They’d passed by it on the way to the burrow, which was only a few dozen paces away. How did Elise know the plant was something odd? Ari supposed it stood out from the rest of their surroundings, but she wouldn’t have thought exceptionally so.

“It’s, uh, something we got from the dungeon. A reward from a mini-boss.”

“Right. You were the one to find the dungeon. I almost forgot.” She paused. “Did finding it have to do with …” she shrugged, as if not knowing specifically where she was going with the question.

“Claire did, yeah. Or, the Hive. She relayed it to me.”

Elise nodded. “That’s convenient.” She pursed her lips. “But what is it? Hungry Vines Sprout?”

She’d [Inspected] it. “Guess we’ll find out.” Ari coughed. “But if its anything like the plant mini-boss we fought … it’ll be something you probably want to stay away from.”

“Plant mini-boss,” Elise repeated. “What was … what was that like?”

“Uh. Fun?” Maybe she shouldn’t have used that word. “A challenge.” Ari colored. Her blush had settled down, because there was only so many times she could be flustered at mentioning her sticky adventures, but Cece’s fight had been even more, uh, sticky than most. “We’re hoping it gives something good, but it might be a while before it matures.”

“Huh.” Elise chose not to press the topic; by her own reddened cheeks, she could guess what the plant involved … and the mini-boss, Cece. She’d taken this all remarkably in stride, but Ari knew Elise wasn’t experienced either. Talking about inappropriate subjects flustered her as much as Ari. Or, as much as Ari prior to her new class; Ari handled the topic much better these days.

Just, not around Elise. For obvious reasons.

“The loot is strange too, then?” Elise asked.

“Yeah. Well. Some of it. The dungeon chests give normal items, but defeating monsters gives … odder stuff.”

“Like what?” Elise paused. “Um. You don’t have to tell me. Actually, please don’t. Never mind.”

Ari cleared her throat. She hoped they moved past the awkward phase soon … Ari didn’t like being awkward around Elise. Before, she’d been one of the only people Ari had been totally comfortable around, no matter what. She didn’t like this tentative footing they’d found themselves on.

Not tentative in the sense that Elise was offended, or … Ari didn’t even know. This was just too weird, in too many ways.

“So,” Ari said. “Time for you to meet the squad. I think you’ll like them.”