4.06 – Stylish
“Good news and bad news,” Liz said cheerfully, sliding her food tray onto the table across from Natalie. The bubbly royal was spending more and more of her lunches with Natalie’s group. Ana had also joined them. “Which do you want first?”
“Bad news?” Jordan suggested.
“It’s a trick question, they’re the same thing,” Liz said. “The good news is that Elida’s team has kitchen duty for literally the whole week. The bad news is they didn’t get any real punishment. I can’t say I’m completely surprised, but it’s still kind of …” she trailed off, trying to pick a word.
“Bullshit?” Natalie suggested. “Yeah. That’s kind of lame.” She still hadn’t made up her mind on how she wanted to handle Elida and that entire event. A big part of her wanted to concoct some glorious revenge, but at the same time, Jordan’s words sat in her mind—maybe instigating a rivalry with the prominent daughter of a major royal family wasn’t the best idea. Sometimes taking it on the chin was really the best move. Even if it pissed her off.
For now, she held the grudge to the side. She’d decide later.
“But I do mean all week,” Liz said. “Even the weekend. She messed up her own delving schedule because of it.”
Natalie blinked. “Oh.” That was better than she thought, then. “But not all day, right?”
“Yeah. So they can still go. But it messes up camping down in the dungeon; they need to be back each morning.”
“It’s something, I guess. And our gear?”
“We’re getting most of it back. Not all. Some ‘competition’,” Liz quoted the words with her fingers, “is encouraged at Tenet. But combined with our haul yesterday, and getting a decent chunk of our previous delve back, we’ve made out like bandits. We’re in a good position going into this week.”
“Especially with our upgrades,” Sofia said. “I mean, you saw Nat during practice today.”
Natalie paused, then turned a confused look at the white-haired girl. Had Sofia just complimented her?
“We’re all level two, I take it?” Liz asked, cutting off Natalie’s bafflement. “We didn’t actually bring it up. But me and Ana are. You three?”
“Then that makes all of us, yeah,” Jordan said.
“What’d you get?” Liz asked Natalie. “If I can ask. I saw you fight, but what skills?”
Jordan turned a significant look Natalie’s way, and Natalie wrinkled her nose. It was too perfect of a segue to not broach the subject. [Stylish] needed to be discussed with the team.
She’d start with the non-weird one. “One that makes large weapons handle easier,” Natalie said. “Hence the change.”
Liz made a noise of appreciation. “The dungeon must have known what you’d get, dropping that two-hander.”
The extent to which the dungeon was sentient or even prescient was up for debate, but Natalie herself doubted it had known. Just a coincidental lucky drop. Hardly worth arguing about, though. “Yeah, maybe. Anyway, I’ll probably take it down during our delve today.”
“Tomorrow,” Ana corrected. “We’re not delving today.”
“Sofia’s competition,” Jordan said, bumping an elbow into Natalie’s side.
“Oh. Right,” Natalie said. She’d forgotten. “Tomorrow then. Anyway, that was one skill I needed to mention. The other is, uh. Well.”
Liz paused, then blushed, putting two and two together. “Related to your class?” she joked.
“Yeah,” Natalie said. She looked around the cafeteria—no one was nearby—then lowered her voice. “So, uh, basically, if I’m attracted to what any of my teammates are wearing, they get a stat bonus. And the same in reverse, for me.”
The table paused.
“Excuse me?” Sofia asked.
“That’s, um, interesting,” Liz said.
“What if we wear nothing?” Ana asked. “Does that count?”
Everyone looked at the dark-haired mage, eyes wide.
Ana tilted her head. “Because I assume being naked would be the most arousing, wouldn’t it? Or near it. So is it the highest stat bonus?”
“How is that where your mind went?” Liz squeaked.
“It’s a good point,” Jordan said, amused. “Maybe we should be a rings, amulets, and accessories only team. And I mean only.”
Liz turned two shades redder. Natalie wondered why Jordan had to always instigate, these days.
“We get bonuses if you’re aroused?” Sofia said, glaring at Natalie, her voice nearly a growl. “What is wrong with your class, Nat?”
“Think I asked for it?” Natalie shot back. “Not like I had a choice in the matter.”
Natalie paused.
Well, that was a lie. She’d actively been given a choice; she could have taken the default class options. But her point stood.
“I’m not delving naked,” Sofia said flatly. “There’s limits to how much I’ll deal with your class.”
“Didn’t ask you to, did I?” Natalie said. “It’s just a skill the team should know about.”
“Hmph.”
“Don’t even know how it works, anyway,” Natalie said. “It might just be, like, a minimum thing. That the outfit has to meet some basic requirement, then you get the full boost, and it doesn’t scale more for how crazy it is. I’ll figure it out later.”
“How? With who?” Sofia asked, then paused, realizing she probably shouldn’t have asked the question. Several eyes turned, naturally, to Jordan.
“The things I do for friends,” Jordan said wryly. “Unless someone else wants to volunteer?” Her eyes turned to Liz, who colored brightly.
“Anyway,” Natalie said. “Now you guys know. So there.”
“I was planning on finding something to wear under or over those new robes of mine,” Ana said, “but perhaps that’s not necessary.” She shrugged. “I don’t mind. Mage equipment is mostly magical protections. It’s more of an issue for Sofia and Jordan. Walking around scantily clad has real defense implications.”
“The sluttier stuff usually has shield effects built in,” Jordan said. “So the trick will be finding natural dungeon gear like that.”
“Won’t be that hard, I bet,” Sofia grumbled. “Somehow, I bet the dungeon’s going to be very accommodating over the following days.”
Nobody disagreed.
“We’re going to have such a reputation at Tenet,” Sofia said. “A team of five women, all dressed in slutty gear. Can you imagine?”
Natalie could imagine, and it was having unfortunate effects on her. She shifted in place, and Jordan’s lips quirked. Under the table, she patted Natalie on the thigh—unfortunately close to a growing problem. Really. Why was Jordan always causing problems these days? She’d always been the person to smooth things over, before.
“We’ll have back-up gear, I was saying,” Jordan said. “Something to wear around normally, and our real set of gear we’ll put on in the dungeon. Because yeah, I don’t mind making use of the skill when we have some privacy, but maybe not around campus.”
“And if someone bumps into us down there?” Sofia asked. “Or during school events where armor is allowed?”
Jordan shrugged. “Well, we’ll deal with that when we get to it. Depending on how strong the boost is, though, could definitely be worth it, embarrassing or not.”
“It was just a heads up,” Natalie said, wanting to move on. “We’ll talk more about it later.” It had just been for the best if they were told in advance. But detailed discussions were kind of pointless, since she still needed to experiment with the skill with Jordan, discover its limitations and such. Which would, of course, be an event in its own right.