"No…"

Vale had sat back down on the throne and awaited Awilix's and Salome's return.

When they did, Salome had an odd, pleasant look on her face while Awilix looked angry and disturbed… but also satisfied.

Vale had heard an extra message of earned Satisfaction, two actually, during his adventures with Toy, meaning the cat had indeed gotten what she wanted. Then again, Awilix didn't look like she'd warmed up to the succubus at all; in fact, she looked angry…

It was an odd anger. Like she was happy with the outcome, but mad it happened.

Once they'd all gathered once again, Vale and Salome discussed a little bit of the activities in the coming days before finally settling on the order of operation.

Today, they'd continue their rest. Lust knows they needed it.

None of them, not even Salome, was particularly in the mood to go on another adventure. That being transporting the goods from the chameleon's dungeon.

However, that would be the very task at hand for tomorrow.

Salome, Toy, and Alpha squad were going to spend the entire day transporting the spoils of war. Once that was done, they could finally wash all of the blood and sweat off in the river…

While Lust had an odd way of making its subjects clean by way of removing odors, bacteria, fungi, whatever… it did nothing to remove the literal built-up grime. So, even if they smelled nice and their skin was unblemished, Vale and the others were starting to look a bit ragged…

Even Salome, who'd gottern drenched in her own blood.

So, everyone, even Vale, was going to take turns washing off in the river….

In other words, Vale was once again going to leave the dungeon. Under intense protection, of course.

Just moments before, he'd been content in his confinement within the dungeon, but now, having experienced his newfound strength, he gained confidence. Plus, if he wanted to go wash off, this may be his only chance…

After all, if what Salome warned of came to pass, it wouldn't be long before the area started to flood with beasts, lured by the residual Aether from the chameleon's camping outside.

Finally, once that was finished… Vale would go back to bolstering the dungeon's defenses, making progress in innovation, and deciding on initiatives for his forces to pursue, while also attempting to increase his understanding of Rudimentary Shapeshifting and Aether in general.

Then, the eventful month would be capped off by the second Council of Vice and subsequent Coming of Age ceremony, where Vale would have the highest chance of being discovered. Maybe not his dungeon being discovered directly… but the increase in beast activity already in the area, which would only get worse because of the dungeon and chameleons, was starting to become noticeable.

It was going to be a busy but relatively tame next two weeks.

Well, actually, there was one more thing he had to work towards.

Summoning the next Champion was under 8 Satisfaction away…

***

Transporting the materials had taken less time than Vale had initially thought.

In the end, they'd manage to take everything valuable.

They collected the king's spear, a plethora of bone knives, a few rations, and… that was about it. The chameleons were pretty primitive and poor.

Well, there was one more thing… it served no use, but they'd taken the bone crown. Vale was currently displaying it above the entrance to the current throne room as proof and a reminder of his triumph.

Besides material gains, they also gained some knowledge.

During their transport, Salome noted an odd phenomenon. The chameleon's dungeon seemed to be… consuming itself. It was slow — the stone was growing, and the walls were pushing forward and condensing. It had only reached the throne by the time they'd taken the last item away, but if the event continued, the dungeon would be completely hidden and consumed within the next month or so.

It wasn't entirely a profound discovery, but it meant that previous dungeons were most likely erased in due time, and if he fought another war where there was more to transport, he should start with the operation as soon as possible.

Other than the transport, Vale had also taken this time of leisure to give Ximena her Aether and talk with his forces and get their recount of the battle, as well as renaming Two.

Awilix seemed to have had it the worst, or at least suffered the worst, being forced into a counter matchup.

Salome was rampaging in the heart of the enemy force, where foes were plentiful but mainly weak. Ximena faced a tricky bastard who employed some underhanded tactics. Stacy's squad, positioned in fake routes of the maze, with their main goal to pick off stragglers, had done well, killing four times as many as they lost. And they didn't possess near the same emotional integrity as their counterparts, the workers, so they didn't dwell on the losses. However, they weren't entirely unaffected.

Speaking of the workers…

The ones who died were mourned, but they'd signed up for the role, and each of them knew it. So while these tears for the little guys and gals were born of sadness, they were also born of respect for their bravery.

Though in spite of that fact of choice, Larry, who'd survived, grew a little despondent and distant from the rest and was overall being quite an asshole to his new partner Dickless Jr., who was assigned to assist his adventures of forge creation.

Marvel was also reassigned to train as an artisan to replace Sizzy, and Aster was made his helper.

This would mean their creation of the forge would be delayed, but Vale did have the excess Aether to spare, which he could use to summon more workers at any moment.

With those talks over, Vale began his adventure to the river, guarded by Salome and Toy.

Vale stepped outside and held up his hand to block the sunlight, which slowly burned away his Aether.

'Not nearly as draining as before…'

If before he estimated he could stay outside for a couple of hours before he withered and died, now he felt he could survive a week. Assuming he didn't use Aether for anything else.

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