Chapter 112

“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?”