Ch 328: The underwater temple.

Erica, wearing a blue and black female cop uniform, rolled her dice with trepidation.

This was the third day after Mystic Moon had opened, and Noah and the girls were having breakfast together inside their dorms.

"6 and 2. Double Rules, Independence Restriction and Lifestyle Restriction." declared Yui with the tone of someone enjoying herself. "Independence Restriction: You must install a Geo-tracking application on your smartphone, linked to your Owner's smartphone. Lifestyle Restriction: You cannot make eye contact with your Owner anymore."

"I do not care about the geo-tracking part." sighed Erica. "But I feel like I risk meeting my Lord's gaze by mistake at lot."

"Do not worry, Kitten." said Yui. "I will remind you if you make that mistake up to twice a day without out incurring any penalty, as long as you properly lower your eyes the instant I tell you about it."

"Thank you, I guess." nodded Erica. Overall, she was quite satisfied with today's roll, as the rules were pretty harmless. She had expected a lot worse.

"Your turn, Bunny." smiled Noah.

"Yes." sighed Liliana. "Hopefully, I won't get two rules."

Liliana rolled her own dice, and…

"5 and 5. You get two rules, but you can choose them, Bunny." said Hikari. "Please leave the room and I will give you the list of rules available to you. Kitten is not allowed to hear them."

Liliana sighed, wondering if she had been lucky or not, and left the room.

"Bunny, here are the list of rules you have to choose from."

"Body training Lvl 1, drink at least two liters of water every day. Independence Restriction Lvl 1, your Owner must choose your public outfit and dress you up. Lifestyle Restrictions Lvl 1, Curse words are banned. Sexual Restrictions Lvl 1, you can only consume pre-approved porn materials. Shame conditioning Lvl 1, Wear a butt plug in public."

"Chores Lvl 2, do all dishes in the house. Serving Lvl 3, wash your Owner every morning. Worship Lvl 2, typing exercise for one hour every even day, maintain 60 words a minute or be edged. Ownership progression Lvl 1, wear a locked collar at all times."

"Sexual service Lvl 1, request to service your Owner sexually at least three times a day. Oral training Lvl 2, Each repetition will only count if you hold your lips to the dildo's base for five consecutive seconds. Anal training Lvl 2, Ride a small dildo for 10 minutes each day. Orgasm training Lvl 2, edge twice a day and orgasm at least once every day. Discomfort training Lvl 1, wear a corset during waking hours, with at least 5 centimeters waist reduction. Lesbian Training Lvl 1, you must kiss another woman for sixty seconds every day."

"Everyday bondage Lvl 1, wear comfortable wrist and ankle cuffs during waking hours. When at home, connect them together with 30 centimeters chains. Nighttime slave training Lvl1, wear comfortable wrist and ankle cuffs connected by 30-centimeter chains when in bed. Pet Training Lvl 1, wear a bone gag, collar, tail plug and lock your wrists to your biceps every odd-numbered day. Bondage immersion training Lvl 2, add a blindfold and speak out loud about your affection to your Owner every three minutes. Bondage Duration Training, one per week, spend two hours in the gear of your highest level between pet, immersion and intensity training. Bondage Intensity Training Lvl 1, Wear an armbinder, collar, gag, thigh-to-ankle cuffs for 30 minutes every even-numbered day."

Hikari finally fell silent, and Liliana felt like she had already forgotten a good third of it.

"Before you make your choice, Bunny, are you willing to listen to my advice?" asked Hikari.

"Why not?" nodded Liliana.

"If you want the tamest rules, then Body training and Sexual restrictions or Lifestyle Restrictions are the obvious choices. Having to drink two liters of water isn't a big deal, and you do not seem to consume of lot of porn or use swear words. However, you should seriously think about choosing Sexual Service."

"Sexual Service?" exclaimed Liliana before blushing furiously. "Isn't it the one where I would have to…"

"To ask to service Master sexually three times a day, yes."

"But that may be the most extreme one on the list! Why are you recommending it?" asked Liliana.

Hikari made an audible sigh.

"Bunny, we both know that you are falling in love with Master. No, don't bother trying to deny it, I monitor your vitals constantly, remember? I can read you like a book."

Liliana closed her mouth, as she had been about to blurt out a vehement denial, and blushed fiercely.

"It's fine, I'm not going to embarrass you in front of the others or tell Master about your feelings. Not that he needs me, since you aren't exactly hard to read... But ask yourself this, Bunny. Would you rather lose your virginity to the man you love, or to a toy? There are some rules that involve you having something in there. It's only a matter of time, and since the rolls are random, we do not know how long you have before this happens."

"…I understand." sighed Liliana. She could see Hikari's point, and she wasn't wrong in warning her. "…But… I can… take initiatives outside of the rules, right?"

"If you mean going to Master and asking him to take you to his bed, yes, you can do that at any time, as long as he agrees to it." replied Hikari.

"Then… I will to that. Not tonight. I need to prepare my heart. But soon." decided Liliana.

"Alright. I'm proud of you, Bunny. Make sure you come with Master on his next trip home, I want to meet you properly."

Liliana nodded, feeling better. "I'll take the Body Training and the S-Sexual Restriction rules."

"As you wish."

Liliana returned to the others and updated them on the rules she had chosen.

The whole time, she didn't meet Noah's eyes. Not because she had a rule like Erica, but she just couldn't stop blushing, thinking about what Hikari had told her.

…

Noah logged back into Mystic Moon. Little Grey appeared, and he patted his head as he took a look at the player ranking.

Rank 1          Eve                               Fame: 2230

Rank 2          Noah                            Fame: 1905

Rank 3          Luo Hao                      Fame: 460

Rank 4          _____                              Fame: 445

Rank 5          Ruo Ruo                       Fame: 380

Rank 6          Ice Heart Demon      Fame: 350

Rank 7          Sword God Doni        Fame: 325

Rank 8          Sword Emperor        Fame: 325

Rank 9          Caesar                         Fame: 285

Rank 10        Chu Zihang                 Fame: 265

He had lost the top spot.

And with the time traveling he would have to do to reach the Lonely Spirit Ridge, he wasn't going to be able to kill too many monsters over the next few days.

Noah checked the Equipment ranking, and Soaring Cloud was still the single entry. That meant that Eve likely had yet to kill a Fairy-grade boss, or she would have gotten some gear worthy of appearing in the ranking. She likely was using Gold-grade weapons.

"Welcome back, my little master." said Qi Yue, suddenly appearing near him.

Noah felt a shiver of pleasure and tried not to show the effect she had on him. He failed, and she chuckled softly.

"Hi, Qi Yue. How are you doing? And hi, Ye Yue. I should get used to speaking to her as well when I speak with you."

"My, I am sure she will appreciate your attention. I am doing fine." chuckled Qi Yue.

"I am glad to hear it. There's only the two of you inside the Lunar Scourge, right? Or is there a crowd watching me?"

"Just the two of us." smiled Qi Yue before disappearing.

With a sigh, Noah mounted his horse and headed East.

Every time he encountered new types of monsters, Noah killed a few of them and checked what Little Grey would generate from their corpses. Most of them were crystals or potions. They were all valuable, but not nearly enough for him to justify stopping for a while.

Only when he found a group of twenty Lvl 16 1-star elite black lions did he stop to kill them, netting him 320 Fame and SP and two Copper-grade items.

Noah's decision to skip on leveling, while painful, still allowed him to cover most of the distance to Lonely Spirit Ridge. He would have kept going for a few more hours, thanks to only needing three hours of sleep a day, when he thought he heard a siren. He looked around, frowning but not seeing any monster close to the road he was in, and trying to locate its source. When, he was interrupted by an urgent voice.

"Noah-sama, every student is asked to gather in the computer hall! There is an emergency!" urgently said Arianna in his ear.

Noah instantly hit the log off button, and after a few seconds of his vision going black, opened his eyes in the real world.

Karen and Arianna were crouching close to Rikka and Shuiruo, warning them. Erica and Liliana were raising from their chairs.

Noah put on his shoes as he used Promise, searching for enemies or an obvious cause for the emergency. There were no dragons attacking the College, no ongoing firefight.

The College was an angry beehive of activity, with most students hurrying down the College's first basement and to the Computer Hall, a huge, long room with one of the narrow walls being fully occupied by a screen. Over two hundred desks, each with a computer, were forming four rows along the hall. Noah saw the principal and two other senior teachers standing in front of the large screen, their faces tense.

"It doesn't seem like we're under attack. No one is fighting." frowned Noah.

Some other students and teachers formed small groups and reached what was obviously predetermined defensive positions.

As soon as the girls were ready, Noah joined them as they all jogged toward the computer Hall.

The teachers were instructing the students to stand in front of a computer.

One the large screen was some kind of large diagram, it shape changing every second. It reminded Noah of a Rubik's Cube, but with shapes a lot more complex.

When Noah entered the room, Principal Anjou gestured for him to come closer.

"Greetings, Principal. What is the situation?" asked Noah as he quickly walked to him.

"Our expedition of the underwater temple we found recently is going… badly. Two of our students are caught in the temple, and it keeps transforming. Their way out is already cut."

"Where is it? How long before their air tanks run empty?"

"Half an hour at most, and the lake is twenty kilometers north of here." sighed Anjou.

Noah nodded, and turned his head towards the north, using Promise to follow the nearby river. Within a minute, he had found the lake, with a futuristic ship hovering above it near the lake's center. The steel ship, roughly shaped like the letter H and maybe 150 meters in length, used a dozen huge Realizer units to float a few dozen meters above the waters.

Noah scanned the lake's depths and found what he assumed to be the temple's entrance, a three meters tall oval opening surrounded by large fangs that would block the access when closed, but he couldn't see beyond it. It was a feeling similar to the Domains of Teyvat.

"My far sight ability can't see past the Temple's entrance." frowned Noah as he talked to the Principal. "Is the inside in another sub-dimension?"

"You can see it from here?" exclaimed Anjou, surprised, before sighing. "Everyone should be here by now, so I'll make the announcement."

Anjou stepped forward the students and talked loudly enough for all of them to hear.

"Everyone, two of your comrades are currently struck inside an underwater temple they were exploring, and they only have half an hour of air left. They were linked by wires to the exploration ship and we got some footage of the inside, including a tree whose branches we believe show a map of the temple. However, when they entered a room, the temple became active and started transforming. The students' path to retreat was cut, as were their wires."

"Norma is analyzing the patterns from the tree to try to understand and anticipate the temple's transformation, that is still ongoing. I ask each of you to try to assist her with the computers. Norma has a lot of processing power, but she is somewhat lacking in intuition. I do not know what your chances of finding cues to guide Normal towards the answer is, but please give it your best."

Noah was listening, but also keep using promise, probing around the entrance, and he found something else.

"Principal, is your exploration ship heavily armed?" frowned Noah.

"No. Are you suggesting trying to blow up part of the temple? It's too risky."

"No. There is a huge beast not far from the entrance, almost as big as your ship. It has a dragon's head, the body shape of a whale or turtle, and large fins for arms and legs."

"A Dragon Servant!" cursed Anjou, and the senior teachers near him froze.

"You may want to ask your ship to get well away from the lake. I'll deal with it." said Noah. "And I'll ask for Shuiruo to come with me, since saving the students and fighting the beast at the same time will be tricky. The ship has spare air tanks I can borrow, right?"

"Norma, warn the exploration ship." ordered Anjou.

"Understood." replied the AI through the hall's speakers.

"Who are the students in question?" asked Noah.

"Ye Sheng and Aki Sakatoku. You met them previously, if I recall correctly."

"Indeed, I did. They supervised my admission test. I'm fond of them."

Noah gestured for Shuiruo, and she quickly walked to them.

"We'll be on our way, take some spare tanks from the exploration ship, and enter the temple. Once inside, I should be able to find them quickly, and we'll get them out."

"…Are you confident you can deal with a Dragon Servant?" asked the Principal. "They aren't as powerful as the Black Dragon Emperor or the Elemental Kings, but they aren't weak, either, and you will be facing it underwater."

"I am confident." nodded Noah. "Let's go, Shuiruo. We're in a hurry."

"Yes." nodded Shuiruo.

With a last nod to the Principal, Noah ran with light steps towards the exit, Shuiruo following him.

Once they were airborne and flying north, Shuiruo got closer to him.

"We could teleport to them directly, right?" asked Shuiruo.

"We could, but I do not think Lilith-sama and the other deities want us to take shortcuts… If I'm wrong and we are too late, I'll eat the cost and revive them."

"I see." nodded Shuiruo.

"I need to make some preparation, you may feel a little strange in a short while." warned Noah as he opened his Yin-Yang Store. There as a specific upgrade he needed.

"Underwater combat package. Cost: 50 000 Yin Points, 300 Yang Points. Allows the User to move underwater with a significant speed reduction. The effect of movement techniques is severely degraded. Also allows User to breathe underwater and become immune to the negative effects of pressure."

Noah bought the skill, and felt it be added to his long list.

"Please tell me this is one I can share with you." said Noah at Shuiruo. She looked lost in thoughts, and her flight path was starting to angle downward.

For an instant, Noah wondered if he would have to stop her from crashing, but she stabilized.

"Yes, I have it as well. Thank you, Noah!" smiled Shuiruo.

"Our priority is our fellow students." said Noah. "If the Aquatic Dragon doesn't make a move, we'll pretend we haven't noticed it and won't engage."

"I understand."

After five minutes of flights, they reached the exploration ship. Noah was surprised to see Nono standing near another of the senior teachers, a man with shoulder-length black hair and a mustache. They both waited for them just outside the bridge.

"Hey, Noah, Shuiruo!" exclaimed Nono, her face showing how worried she was.

"We're going in. Do you have spare air tanks?" bluntly asked Noah.

"Here." said the teacher, pointing to eight canisters. Noah was surprised by how small they were, as they were flat, vaguely rectangular, and essentially the size of a closed laptop.

Noah took four of them, putting them in his inventory, and Shuiruo put the others in her spatial ring.

"We've prepared diving suits and helmets for you." said the teacher, but Noah was about to shake his head, saying there was no time, when he realized that having the helmets, at least, might be useful to communicate with Ye Sheng and Aki.

Noah nodded and quickly stripped to his underwear, Shuiruo imitating him. As they changed, Nono and the teacher turned away.

"How are you going to find them down there? We tried tracking Yanling, but they are out of our range." asked Nono.

"I have a far sight ability." replied Noah. "Once inside, I should be able to see through the walls. Once I find them, we'll force our way through them even if we have to bore holes all over it."

In a minute, they were suited up and closed the helmets' Plexiglas visors.

"See you soon." said Noah, already jumping off the platform and flying toward the lake.

Noah and Shuiruo both entered the waters at a 45° angle. The visibility was very bad, since it was close to midnight, but they both had night vision, and Noah was using Promise to keep an eye on the aquatic dragon. Despite being five hundred meters away, it had noticed them the instant they entered the waters but didn't move, aside from slowly tilting its head towards them.

When Noah and Shuiruo reached the bottom at a depth of 140 meters, they slowed down, following a short trench that ended with the temple's entrance.

The dark oval hole, surrounded by two rows of long fangs, looked especially sinister, and for Noah who had gotten used to seeing in the dark, the dark hole his eyes couldn't probe seemed particularly ominous.

When they got within three meters of the hole, a sudden and strong current sucked them in.

In seconds, Noah's vision returned, and his ears were filled with the grating of stone moving on stone.

They were in a large, roughly square room, whose floor, ceiling and walls were made of square blocks, roughly six meters wide. One of them was slowly moving, but is wasn't revealing any way out.

Noah focused on using Promise. He could now scan the temple without impairment, although the hundreds of moving parts proved very distracting. He eventually found Ye Sheng and Aki, about three hundred meters away in a straight line. Aki wore a black diving suit with red and gold highlights, and Ye Sheng a black and blue one. He had a large wooden case strapped on his back in addition to his air tank.

The two of them were swimming down a long tunnel, and a stone cube was moving behind them, already sealing the path from which they came.

"Found them, Ruo Ruo. Grab my hand." said Noah, swimming toward the room's "floor" and materializing a few Light Swords. He started digging and cutting his way through the stone.

It was only normal stone, and the swords penetrated easily, but even when Shuiruo started helping, it still took them almost thirty seconds to get through.

Noah and Shuiruo swam down, then left. Thanks to their new ability, they could reach close to a hundred kilometers per hour underwater, and could accelerate, decelerate or change direction like nimble fishes. Noah stopped in the middle of the tunnel and dug on the right wall.

Another tunnel was hidden behind that stone, and they kept moving.

"How do these stone cubes even move?" wondered Shuiruo. "Do they have a power source inside? How do they stick together?"

"I have no idea." shrugged Noah. "One more wall to go through, and we should reach them."

Shuiruo nodded, and when Noah stopped next, he manifested a thin but very long Light sword, that he pushed all the way through the stone cube, its tip protruding two meters on the other side.

Ye Sheng and Aki both saw it and stopped, alarmed. They first thought it might be a trap and were about to get away, when Aki remembered having seen Light Blades during Noah's admission test, and she paused with a hopeful expression.

Noah and Shuiruo made their way through the wall, and swam to them.

"Hey guys, the cavalry is here!" grinned Noah, already taking from his inventory a pair of fresh air tanks.

Aki looked like she was about to cry from relief, and Ye Sheng smiled with a grateful nod.

"Thank you so much, Noah, Shuiruo!" exclaimed Aki.

"Get us out of here, and your next drink is on me." nodded Ye Sheng.

Once they both changed their air tank, Shuiruo turned to Noah, winked, and grabbed Ye Sheng's hand.

"We're going to move fast, so hold on tight."

With that, she already moved through the hole they had made, dragging Ye Sheng after her.

Noah smiled, thinking that Shuiruo was the best wingswoman, and boldly snaked an arm around Aki's waist, lightly pressing her against his torso.

"Ah…" exclaimed Aki, starting to blush, but she didn't move away.

"Aki, put one foot on mine for support, and your arms around my neck. We're going to move fast, and there's a Dragon Servant waiting near the exit.

"A Dragon Servant! …But how will you swim with one foot…"

Noah started to move toward the hole without a word, and Aki, surprised, draped her arms around him and held tight.

With their passengers, Noah and Shuiruo moved at a more sedate pace, only about twice what Aki and Ye Sheng could manage without help, and they quickly returned to the entrance before the temple's transformation cut their path again. The exit wasn't visible, but Noah and Shuiruo could both feel the spatial and magical disruption on the ceiling.

"As soon as we make our way through, we'll shoot up like rockets until we reach the surface." warned Noah. "Don't worry about pressure sickness or the bends, Shuiruo and I will heal you immediately before the symptoms can appear."

"Okay." nodded Ye Sheng and Aki.

Noah exchanged a smile with Shuiruo, then poured his magic into the spatial distortion, forcing it wider. The same suction phenomena resisted his effort, but Noah and Shuiruo pushed through, and they reached the other side.

Both Noah and Shuiruo, and the aquatic dragon, who had gotten nearer, started to move at the same time.

The Dragon, however, had severely underestimated how fast Noah and Shuiruo could move, and its huge jaws missed them by a few dozen meters.

Shuiruo and Ye Sheng were the first to shoot trough the lake's surface, and she headed toward the exploration ship while healing him.

Noah broke through the surface half a second later but stopped when he was a few dozen meters above it. He wanted to test his newest creation.

With Aki still hugging him, Noah used Greater Healing on her, curing her from the severe decompression sickness that was about to manifest itself, while six magic arrays appeared around him

As expected, the Aquatic Dragon was gathering momentum to try to jump out of the water and bite Noah and Aki, like a dolphin in an aquatic parc.

When the six secondary arrays were fully formed, the main array took form at their center, in front to Noah's extended left palm, and the air around it hummed with barely constrained energy.

The dragon's head broke through the surface with more than enough momentum to reach them, its jaws opening, a cruel light reflected in its glowing yellow eyes.

Then Noah unleashed his spell, and a three-meter-wide beam of plasma laced with Destruction energy shot down, right into the Dragon's open mouth.

The beam tore into the dragon's flesh and bones, incinerating the base of its brain, the upper spin, and exiting from its lower back, and a steam explosion occurred under it as large amounts of the lake's water were instantly turned into steam.

The great beast, already dead, started sinking in the turbulent waters, and Noah headed toward the exploration ship.

"Ah…" muttered Aki, her mouth slack in awe.

"Are you okay, Aki?" asked Noah with a teasing smile, and her blush returned.

"I… I'm fine." said Aki as she turned her face away.

"I am glad we could reach you in time." said Noah with his best grin. "There's no way I'd let such a pretty girl die."

"Such a...!" blurted out Aki, blushing further as she looked back at him. "Don't try to take advantage of the situation!"

Something in her tone told him that she wasn't wholly opposed to the idea of being taken advantage of, though.

Once again, his pretty face and charisma were having their effect.

"Hehe." chuckled Noah, holding her a tiny bit tighter. He had already decided that starting tonight, Aki was going to have a few erotic dreams about him. And judging by her cute reactions, he might not even have to do anything.

The flight to the exploration ship took only half a minute, and as they landed on the deck, Noah released Aki, only for her to be tightly hugged by a tearful Nono.

Noah watched with a fond smile as he removed his helmet and dropped the unused gear on the ground.

"Thank you very much, Noah, Shuiruo." said the senior teacher as he walked closer.

"Saving our comrades if we are able is what every student would do." shrugged Noah. "Besides, I need to justify the trust the Principal put in me."

"You are being too modest. I do not think you realize just what kind of feat you just performed. You and miss Ling."

"Are you going to explore the temple again, once Norma finds out the logic behind its transformations?" asked Noah, wanting to change the subject. Seeing his student uniform in a neat pile nearby, he started removing his diving suit.

"No." Said the senior teacher, turning away and glancing at the wooden case Ye Sheng had just set on the deck. "If we do, maybe we will request that you be the one doing it. And we already got something from the temple."

"We have changing rooms in the ship, you know?" pointed out Ye Sheng.

Noah ignored him as he finished removing the diving suit.

Aki and Nono looked with wide eyes, seemingly entranced with his upper body, and when Noah, now wearing only his boxer, glanced at them, they turned away with a gasp.

"I do not mind if you look. I'm not ashamed of my body, and the private part is decently covered." shrugged Noah.

"…I'll use the changing room." said Shuiruo.

"Y-Yes, I-I need to change too. It's t-this way, please follow me…" stammered Aki. She led Shuiruo away, but Noah still noticed from the corner of his eyes that she glanced at his naked torso a last time before going inside the ship.

Once Noah was dressed back in his school uniform and fixed his tie, Nono came to him.

"Thank you, Noah. If you hadn't been there…"

"It's okay." smiled Noah. "If I had been the one in trouble, I'm sure everyone would be doing their best to help their fellow student. It's just that my 'best' is a little more than others."

Nono watched him for a few seconds, as if trying to read him, then shrugged.

"You may be a little naïve regarding the intentions of every student, but fine, if you want to play modest, I won't push."

"Hey, Nono. What is your alias in Mystic Moon?"

"It's CC_Nono." replied Nono. "Why are you asking?"

Noah nodded as his lie detection ability failed to trigger.

"Because I met Eve briefly yesterday, and her hair are the same shade of red as yours."

Nono snorted.

"I don't know if I should feel pleased that you thought the Goddess of War might be me, or insulted that you thought I would hide under a fake identity."

"In my defense, I haven't seen you fight, and all I know is that you're a A-rank and in Caesar's faction. I know you're strong, but not exactly how strong. Still, if you're interested, I would welcome you in Valhalla. It is soon going to be the strongest faction among the students, you know?"

"Trying to poach me already?" smiled Nono.

"I sure am. There are quite a few perks and go with being my follower. Shuiruo can attest." grinned Noah.

"You may want to enter inside. We'll about to depart and return to the College." interrupted the senior teacher, one finger scratching the side of his mustache, and holding the wooden case.

Noah had the distinct feeling that he deliberately interrupted them.

"Yes, Father." said Nono with a roll of the eyes, but she walked inside.

"Father?" asked Noah with a raised eyebrow, and the teacher nodded with a fierce gaze.

"I am sorry, but I didn't hear your name."

"I am Mance Rundstedt. Nono is my adopted daughter. Don't play games with her, young man. I won't object if she wants to associate with you or even become your lover. She is an adult and I won't try to restrict her freedom. But if you make her cry, I will kill you."

"…Duly noted, teacher. You wouldn't manage to kill me, but I won't give you any reason to try." nodded Noah. He picked up the discarded diving gear he and Shuiruo had used and entered inside the ship.