I awoke the next morning laying on the marshmallow-soft mattress of one of the luxurious canopy beds found in each “personal room”. Like usual, Red’s firm body was snuggled hotly against mine, with her head resting on my chest. Stroking her hair and back gently, neither of us talked, as I squirmed and adjusted my hips slightly, as Jewel slowly worked her mouth up and down between my legs.

Usually, unless they were just too exhausted, both girls “feed” from me before going to sleep and then again first thing in the morning. Jokingly, they called it their “breakfast” and “midnight snack”. At first they had did it under healer’s orders, as Granny said it’d help drain the excess life and restore me to normal, but then we found out it’s not going to actually change anything in my case. I figured the girls would quit at that point, but nothing changed in the slightest.

“Feeding” Jewel and Red morning and night was just part of our routine now, and I wasn’t going to complain over that.

Feeling Jewel finishing up, I gently nudged Red’s head to tilt up towards me. Kissing her passionately, she recognized the unspoken implication and began to kiss her way down my chest once we’d finished. It was time for her “breakfast”.

Kissing her way up the other side of my chest, Jewel worked herself all the way up to passionately lock lips with mine for several breathless moments. “Good morning,” she said, being as usual, the first to speak in the mornings.

Using my hand to stroke the hair away from her face, she settled her soft chest atop mine. Wrapping my arms around her, I softly stroked her back and buttocks, then wished her, “Good morning.” Every morning was a good morning with the girls.

“Are you ready for today?” Jewel’s eyes sparkled, and she giggled cheerfully.

“What’s today?” I didn’t know of any particular reason why today would be unusual from normal. My first full day at the school, so I figured it’d be spent with just signing up for classes and maybe a tour.

“Busy day. Busy day. Busy day,” Jewel chirped, gleefully. Pulling out of my arms, she rolled out of the bed skipped up. “I’ll go find you something for breakfast, while Red finishes hers,” Jewel promised, rushing out of the room.

Sighing, I gently reached down and caressed Red’s hair. I treasured the few minutes Jewel and I took to relax and chat together every morning. Sadly, it seemed I was going to miss out on that pleasure today.

After getting dressed — me in my regular hunting leathers, Red in a simple one piece flower dress – we both headed out and into the sitting room. Now that I actually was looking around, I was truly astonished at how large this “room” actually was, since surprisingly enough, Jewel’s father was paying for a “full task room”, for us.

In the school we’re all attending, students can form dedicated teams to complete various tasks together, in an attempt to earn school merit marks (usually referred to as just ‘marks’ or ‘credits’ by everyone) as a group. Marks have a billion and one uses, it seems, and some were vital for advanced learning, as they are the only way to buy higher student ranks. Larger teams can get harder tasks, and earn more marks faster than individuals, or smaller teams.

The largest team the school allowed to form — a “full task team” — was six people, and Jewel’s father was paying for an “enhanced full task room”. More spacious than even a normal “full task room”, we truly did have the best-of-the-best when it came to where we were staying.

The reason our key was numbered F9 was because we were in the “Family & Task Dorm”, and the whole 9th floor was ours. Other teams might be F801 or F802, if each room was large enough for a half-floor, but we were simply F9. Our room was the ninth floor.

Last night, all I’d paid attention to was three rooms — the sitting room, the single bedroom which I’d used to think and “entertain” Jewel in, and the empty room where we’d performed the blood ritual in. I hadn’t paid any attention to how massive our “room” actually was!

Six bedrooms — one for each possible member of the team. A sitting room with two full couches, two love seats, and a half dozen plush chairs, with more than enough end tables and coffee tables to easily hold everyone’s books or cups, or whatnot. A full sized bathing room with two full sized pools in it — one steaming hot, and the other slightly cooled. A dozen magical nozzles lined the side of the walls, for use of those who preferred to shower.

There was an empty library for storing personal or team journals, and several partitioned studies reminiscent to cubicles from my past life. Two large rooms were empty — for additional storage, I suppose. A fully stocked kitchen similar to the one Red and I had found in the mines, and a dining room with a table large enough for at least a dozen people to sit and enjoy each other’s company.

Our “room”, was larger than my parents house AND old man Corner’s house put together! The place was staggeringly huge, to my poor man’s way of thinking!

And yet...

In spite of all the spare rooms and empty beds, Victoria was still sleeping curled up on the couch. Still as naked as the day she was born, she looked completely helpless; as innocent as a little angel laying defenseless there. Looking over at Red, I put my finger to my lip in a hushing motion, and slowly stalked my way across the room towards her. Temptation was simply too great!

Ignoring Red’s light giggles, I tiptoed across the fine wooden floor, and eased up beside the couch. Crouching down, I prepared my best “monster face”, snarling my lips up and trying to look as menacing as possible. Snarling, I harshened my voice and yelled, “These booties are mine!” Grabbing her breasts firmly…

I blinked and was staring dazedly up at the ceiling. One foot standing on my chest, Victoria stood tensely poised above me, a spear of glowing green light pointed down at my throat. Eyes blazing, she scanned the room all about for any signs of trouble, then laughed cheerfully.

“Good morning to you too,” she piped cheerfully, as if nothing odd had happened at all. Red’s laughter was unabashedly echoing all around.

“Umm… Nice view.” I tried to blow it off as nothing unusual as well, to preserve my manly image. Of course, if getting floored and stepped on by a helplessly sleeping woman becomes the ‘usual’, I don’t know exactly how manly I can truly claim to be.

“It is, isn’t it.” Laughing gaily, Victoria moved her foot off my chest. Glowing spear disappearing from existence, she leaned down and extended her hand for me.

Allowing her to tug me up like a baby, I used the momentum to step forward and wrap my arms around her. Squeezing her ass in both hands, I tried to recover some tiny shred of manly prowess and unpredictability, but Victoria once again exceeded my common sense.

Instead of seeming offended, shocked, or outraged, she simply stretched her arms around me and returned the embrace. Much to my utter shock, my ass was getting felt and squeezed just as much as hers was!

Thank the gods, Red was standing behind and couldn’t see my expression. I’d worry she might die from laughter if she had.

Releasing Victoria from my embrace, she did the same. “Jewel should have breakfast ready here in a moment,” I told her, trying to hide the confusion she generated. Victoria definitely wasn’t like any other woman I’ve ever met – in this world, or the last.

“Jewel fixed breakfast?” Victoria wrinkled her nose up cutely, then strode across to where her clothes still neatly laid stacked atop one of the many tables in the sitting room. “I think it’s time for me to go,” she laughed, sliding a pair of lacy white panties up over her bottom.

“She’s not that bad of a cook anymore,” I promised her. “She’s had time to practice during the last few months.”

“At least she doesn’t burn water anymore,” Red snorted.

“Hey! That was only once!” Coming out from the dining room, Jewel snorted at us. “That wasn’t even my fault,” she explained. “Tomas distracted me, and all the water boiled out of the pot!”

“Sure. Blame it on poor Tomas,” Red chided. “You should’ve told him there was a pot on the stove, but oh nooo… You left if for poor ol’ Corner to find all melted and scorched!”

“Oh shush!” Turning indigently back towards the dining area, Jewel strutted out of the room in a huff. “Come and eat,” she called out, from the other room.

“I see I’ve still got a lot of catching up to do,” Victoria laughed, heading towards the dining room.

Somehow, her state of half-dress, seemed even more erotically alluring to me than when she was completely naked a few moments ago. Dressed in a pair of lacy white hose that stretched her ankles to her hips, Victoria’s ass swayed gently in the lacy white panties she was wearing. A lacy white girdle squeezed her stomach tight, with several elastic straps stretching down to hold up the hose.

Shaking my head from side to side, I faithfully followed her behind into the dining room.

“I’m jealous,” Victoria pouted. Fully dressed now, in a loose midnight blue dress with a slit all the way up to her hips, Victoria stared longingly at Jewel.

“Tough shit,” Jewel taunted, twirling to show off the embarrassing black outfit I’d ‘chosen’ for her.

“I’ll give twenty thousand for it,” Victoria offered, eyes sparkling.

“Twenty thousand? Gold?” Blinking, I couldn’t believe my ears. Jewel’s outfit wasn’t anything more than a set of heels, hose, and a shawl.

“It’s all I can offer up front,” Victoria frowned, “but I can pay another five thousand a year, for the next several years.”

“Wha?” I didn’t understand what she was saying at all.

“It’s fairy made,” Victoria sighed, staring longingly. “I doubt I’ll ever have a chance to have armor half as impressive.” She was positively drooling over Jewel’s outfit.

“Nana nanner!” Twirling again, Jewel stuck her tongue out at Victoria. Wrapping her arms around mine, she laughed gaily, obviously enjoying the attention. “It’s not for sale,” Jewel smirked. “Not for any price.”

Victoria just sighed and stared longingly as Jewel tugged me out the door. I had no clue where I was going, but apparently I was on some sort of schedule for a busy day.

Our first stop took us out of the dorms and over to the “T Building”; Jewel explaining the ‘T’ stood for ‘Teacher’s’. Heading to the top floor — ten flights of damn steps — we knocked on the door to room four.

Several long moments, and multiple attempts later, Jewel shrugged and said, “I guess she’s in her office.” Turning and dragging me along, we started back down all those damnable steps.

Our next stop was to the administration building where Jewel had put on her little strip tease for everybody behind the bushes. Heading up to the second floor, we walked down a long hallway and entered a sitting room.

“Her assistant isn’t in yet,” Jewel giggled, pointing to the empty desk. Moving past the row of chairs normally used by people for waiting, she knocked on the door past them.

“Come in,” was the answer from inside, and Jewel gleefully tugged my arm dragging me behind her as she entered, while Red casually adjusted her skirt and sat down to wait outside.

“Spiritseeker, this is Tomas.” Pushing me to sit in a chair, Jewel plopped herself down in my lap.

The girl sitting behind the desk across from us was — once again — blazingly young and beautiful. Since the moment we’d walked past the school gates, I hadn’t seen a plain or unattractive woman anywhere. Either wealth, or magic, or some combination of the two, transformed every woman here into a distinct beauty.

“I’m Spiritseeker,” the girl confirmed, holding out a tiny hand towards us. Looking to be no more than fourteen or fifteen years of age, she nevertheless had a nice build, with curves in perfect proportions for her body. “Aren’t you an interesting one,” she muttered, staring unblinkingly at me.

“He’s mine,” Jewel declared possessively, wrapping both arms around my neck as I shook the girl’s hand. “Tomas,” I introduced myself.

“So what brings you out to me so early in the morning?” Letting go of my hand, Spiritseeker turned her attention back to Jewel.

“Tomas wanted to make a donation for credit,” Jewel told her.

“I did?” It was the first I’d heard about such a thing.

“While hunting,” Jewel continued, ignoring me completely, “Tomas came across some masterweaved chill stones. He wants to donate one to the school for credit.” Reaching into the small pocket of her skirt, Jewel pulled out one of the icy blue ball bearing me and Red had scavenged from the mines.

“Hmmm…” Reaching out a tiny hand, the girl — Spiritseeker, I reminded myself — slowly picked up the ball and examined it. A few moments later, a shimmering glow moved from her hands to sparkle around the corners of her eyes, as she stared at it.

“Grandmaster woven,” Spiritseeker corrected. “Many will be interested in studying this,” she confirmed. “I’ll exchange twelve credits for it.”

“Twenty,” Jewel countered.

“Fifteen,” Spiritseeker offered, sitting the ball back down on her desk.

“Ten and promotion for Tomas to Student Rank,” Jewel asked?

“He’s just an Applicant?” Raising an eyebrow quizzically, Spiritseeker stared directly at me.

“Not quite,” Jewel giggled. “He hasn’t finished signing up fully yet.”

Sighing, Spiritseeker made her final offer. “Eight credits and Student Rank. Two credits go for me having to register him and fill out all the paperwork.”

“Done,” Jewel agreed, holding the steel ball out to her.

Leaving the administration building with an arm wrapped around each of the girls, I was already a Student. Most who sign up begin at Applicant rank, and then have to pay ten credits or earn meritorious points from exceptional grades or student rankings, to advance to Student rank, but Thanks to Jewel, I got to skip all that. I really didn’t fully understand why Student was better than Applicant, but it was important to Jewel, so I was happy.

Heading across the courtyard, Jewel made a beeline to a heavily guarded building. Getting to doors leading inside the building, a heavily armored guard in chain mail stepped to block our way. Holding up a gauntleted fist, he firmly informed us, “No more than two may enter at a time.”

Giggling, Red tugged me forward, while declaring, “This is my turn.” Pouting slightly, Jewel didn’t argue; instead, only moving to go sit at a bench in front of a picnic table nearby. Nodding now that we met his requirements, the burly guard held open the door and Red dragged me inside with her.

Going into the building, the first thing noticeable was the four heavily armored guards standing like statues in each corner of a large room. A single large desk sat prominent against a wall, between a set of heavy wooden doors, and several dozen empty chairs make neat rows in opposite it.

Heading up to the desk, a — *sigh* Do I even need to say it anymore? — shockingly beautiful woman asked, “Can I help you?” Perfect curves. Perfect hair. Dressed perfect. Yada yada yada. I think my brain is beginning to reject too much of a good thing. This place is starting to feel just a little too fake to keep appealing to me.

Musing in my own thoughts, I left Red to talk to the beautiful older lady, while I sat and waited patiently. I guess the best way to think about this school was just to compare it to boobs. In Thomas’s memories, his world had “boob jobs” where women got their breasts enlarged. A small boob job could help a woman look more attractive, but when overdone like some of the crazy folks with a Z-bra, it just feels so unnatural it becomes unappetizing instead.

“It’ll be a few minutes,” Red stated, coming back to sit down beside me.

“Don’t ever become a Z-bra,” I told her, making her face puzzle up slightly as we waited.

Several people came in and out of the building over the next half hour, or so, while we waited. A few went past the secretary at the desk, and on back through the doors into the building, but the vast majority spoke to her and were made to wait like us, as well. Most only waited a few minutes, however, where Red and I sat uncomfortably under the guards’ watchful gazes much longer.

Finally, a — *sigh* — handsome male slave showed up and walked over to where we sat. Dressed in only a blue metal neck collar, he had no hair from the neck down, and his bulging erection pointed the way forward for him. “My lord. My lady.” Clasping his hands behind his back, he prominently exposed himself as he stopped no more than a few feet in front of us. “If it pleases you,” he intoned perfectly, “I’ll lead you back when you’re ready.”

Not certain how Red was going to react to a bulging member directly in front of her face, I was shocked as she calmly stood up and wrapped her arm around mine. “We’re ready,” she informed pointer-boy, completely nonplussed.

Turning until his pointer was directed towards the door, the slave slowly led us past them and down several long hallways. Doors with various colored lights beside them, sat shut and closed on either side as we made our way through the building. Finally stopping in front of a door with a green light lit beside it, the slave knocked once, and then opened the door for us. “In here, please,” he told us.

Following Red as she waltzed on pasted the slave, we entered what was obviously the laboratory of a mad scientist. Beakers sat in scattered disarray across various stone tables. Test tubes, pots, cages with various small animals. Basically, everything I’d ever imagine seeing in a mad scientist’s lab — and even more — was in here! And, not to disappoint, like all the best evil laboratories, this one came complete with its own evil scientist!

Walking over to greet us was an uni-sexed person in a long white lab coat. Goggles and mask on their face, hair tucked inside a shining steel cap, I couldn’t tell if they were male or female, young or old, beautiful or ugly. My imagination was painting them as a snaggletoothed old fellow, all covered in wrinkles and warts, so I took an immediate liking to him as he extended a gloved hand to shake.

“Sorry.” Red shook her head slightly from side to side, and crossed her hands firmly behind her back. “Never shake hands with an alchemist,” she repeated, as if it was a common saying she’d heard a million times, like, “Look both ways before crossing the street”.

Not wanting to offend the mad scientist personally, I took their hand and shook it heartily. “I’m Tomas,” I introduced myself. I had no idea why we were here, but I was confident in my ability to heal, and I wanted to seem manly and brave in front of Red.

Instead, she simply looked at me with pity in her eyes, as if I was a brain damaged imbecile, as she spoke up. “Tomas has samples to sell for merits,” she informed ES. I don’t know their name; they never introduced themselves; so I’m just going to refer to them as ES from now on for Evil Scientist.

ES let go of my hand and turned their goggled face to watch Red. Sitting her backpack on the nearest table, she started to open it, only to have ES gently tap her wrist. Shaking his head no, ES walked over and shut the door going back into the hall. Pressing a stone near the handle of the door, the light changed from a green to red color, before he finally nodded and walked back across to us.

Sighing, obviously not liking being in here, Red took a deep breath and slowly unzipped her pack. As she opened it, I couldn’t help but wonder where it’d came from. She wasn’t carrying it when we left the room this morning. She must’ve went and retrieved it while we were busy at Spiritseeker’s office.

“He’s got this for starters,” Red said, pulling out the stoneroach’s corpse she’d collected in the mine. I’d completely forgotten about those things!

ES simply nodded, while standing patiently to the side.

“There’s also dried glow-slime…”

“Widow’s Heart,” I corrected.

“…old mold, fungus, and some nasty white shit in here,” Red continued. “You’ll have to get the white shit yourself,” Red warned. “It’s hazardous to people and almost killed Mi’Lord. I’m not messing with it.”

Nodding to themselves, ES carefully tugged the bag open and stared inside. Twisting the lens on their goggle first left, then right, they finally nodded in satisfaction. Holding up three fingers on their right hand, they pointed over to the giant dead roach.

“Three credits?” Red guessed, and ES nodded.

“That’s fine,” Red smiled, squeezing my arm gently.

Pointing a finger to indicate the bag, ES then waved their hand to cover it all, before holding up two fingers on their left hand and all five on third right.

“Eight credits for bag and all?” I guessed, but ES shook their head left and right to say no. Holding up both hands, ES waited a moment showing all ten fingers. Then, making fists, they hold those closed for a moment, before repeating the whole process another time, and then finishing up with only five fingers left held up.

“Twenty-five credits,” I answered, causing ES to nod vigorously. “Both sounds more than fair to me,” I answered honestly. A grandmaster enchanted chill stone had only traded for about eighteen credits, so I was shocked what we had here would go for anywhere near as much. It’s not like we couldn’t walk back and collect wagon loads of the stuff Red had here for trading.

Nodding in satisfaction, ES held a glove-covered hand expectantly in my direction. Thinking they wanted a handshake to seal the deal, I shook it readily, causing Red to laugh in spite of her nervousness. “Your student card,” she prompted.

“Oh..” Feeling foolish, I let go of ES’s hand and pulled a plain silver card out of my belt pouch and passed it over. ES took it, tapped it a few times, and then handed it back to me.

And with that, our business in the labs was done.

Walking back outside, Jewel was still sitting relaxed at the picnic table. My backpack sat on the bench beside her, and a basket sat atop the table. Victoria, now dressed in a deep purple and red skin-hugging dress, sat opposite her and waved towards us.

“How’d it go?” Jewel asked, turning to stare back at us.

Pulling my student card, I handed it to her, then went around to sit beside Victoria. I wasn’t going to start up the “he’s beside me” rivalry again this morning. Smirking slightly, seeing I didn’t sit beside Jewel, Red moved my backpack to the ground, and then sat down on the bench beside Jewel.

“Twenty eight credits,” Jewel smiled, handing the now blue card back to me. Taking a moment, I looked over my card again.

Name: Tomas Freeman Sex: Male Rank: Student (0/25) Status: Freeman Merit: 36 Age: 17 Account: 200.0.0 Race: Human Room: 9F (A14721Z) Affiliation: None Team: Moonblazers Sponsor: Moonweaver Enterprises. ST: 92 MP: 100 DX: 110 SP: 100 CN: *** Self-Healer Oathbound (Flames du-Freeman) Ageless Bloodbound (Jewel Moonweaver)

Looking at the card, it really reminded me in some ways of a generic status screen for some of the video games in Thomas’s old world. The blank affiliation would be updated if I joined any guilds or organizations. My account listed gold, silver, copper which the school had on-hand for my education — Jewel’s father was giving us all one hundred gold a month to spend!

The numbers after team — Moonblazers was apparently the registered name for Red, Jewel, Flames, and me — represented strength, dexterity, constitution, mystical power, and spiritual power.

“Thinking about Flames,” I interrupted my own thoughts, “has anybody seen her this morning?” To be honest, I hadn’t actually thought about her once since waking up. I guess it was just a case of “out of sight, out of mind”.

“She was in the room this morning,” Jewel told me. “Reading in the library. Why ask about her now?”

“Uhhh…” I didn’t want her or Red getting jealous over me thinking about another girl, when they were right here in front of me. “I was thinking it was a shame she wasn’t here to eat lunch with us all,” I answered, saved by the sight of the basket in front of me.

“I’ll go get her,” Victoria volunteered. Hopping up, she stretched lightly beside the table. “It’s always nice to get some light exercise before a meal.”

Thinking of the nine flights of stairs, I told her, “You don’t have to do…” Too late. She was already across the courtyard and going into the building, a pale green afterglow fading behind her.

“I’ll hit the cafeteria for another basket and an extra pitcher of tea,” Red offered, getting up and running quickly — at a fraction of Victoria’s pace — towards a large building I hadn’t been in yet.