As I have the last couple of weeks, I wake to Drake spooning me from behind, one arm under the pillows, the other wrapped around me, his legs entangled with mine, his tail over my legs. My blanket covers us, though it shifted down to around our stomachs during the night.

Only the first couple of nights did I wake up with someone in my bed who wasn't there when I fell asleep. Ever since the storm, though, he's been in my bed when I fall asleep. And in my shower when I take one. Sometimes, he's even in me in the shower, if we're both still up for it after a day of training, doing some Dungeon runs, and the sex that resulted in the shower.

We definitely aren't dating like Ben and I did, but we're more than just friends. Drake said we're probably friends with benefits, though I'm not sure. Mostly because I've never heard that term before, and he claims it's a term from a world other than mine or his, a world he calls by one of the four elements rather than telling me its actual name.

Whatever we are, I like it. He's a pretty decent person, even if his navigational abilities are lacking, he's hot, he's pretty nice to me, and the sex is pretty amazing. So is being cuddled by him, even if he's a little warm.

That's another thing about Drake. He runs at a higher temperature than people normally do. I guess it's something unique about a dragon who's taken human form, but only managed a partial transition. It's not uncomfortable, though, and I actually enjoy the warmth.

After spending around twenty minutes enjoying his snuggle, I gently free myself from him and turn him onto his back. Drake doesn't wake that easily, even if he's not a heavy sleeper. Once he's on his back, I get right to work waking him up in a way that pleasures him, before switching to something that pleasures both of us.

Once we finish our morning fun, I pull off of him and lie beside him, smiling at him.

"Morning, Drake."

"Morning, Nate," he responds with a happy smile. "I enjoy waking up this way."

"I enjoy it, too," I kiss him, pressing my body against his for the few moments of the kiss.

After enjoying the kiss, I climb off of him and make breakfast for us, biscuits I bought last night and some gravy, sausage, and apples. We eat it, washing our food down with some cold ale, then we do the dishes. I wash and rinse, while Drake dries them off and puts them away.

At least he doesn't get lost doing that. He's managed to remember where everything goes in my apartment. We finish the dishes, then dress and make our way to the tavern. Today will be day fifteen since Drake arrived. Or is is it sixteen?

He arrived, then we had the full day of training for him, then thirteen days of morning training sessions, and today will be the fourteenth of that. So it will be his sixteenth day here, but fifteenth since arrival, I think.

Well, that doesn't matter. Today's the last day of training for Drake. Cassidy and Daniel decided that they would only give him fourteen days of morning sessions, not including the one on the full day. Since today's the fourteenth, it's the final one.

In addition to that, we only have one more Dungeon run to do of the seven-room Dungeon nearby. We'll be doing that today, and tomorrow, we'll set off to do the trial for the Crystal of Power at the Crystal Dungeon.

The reason we aren't setting off to do it today is so that we can be rested for it. It might take us awhile to do, so we'd rather not do it after a morning of training. Then there's the fact that for some reason, in every Dungeon run we have done, every room has had something in it, even though that's not normal. It hasn't tired us out, but we'd still like to not have run a Dungeon the same day we go into the Crystal Dungeon.

I'm glad Daniel and Cassidy agreed to teach Drake without taking a payment. There are less than ten other sword-wielders in town, and none of them are as good as these two. Nor are they as capable of teaching someone how to fight as these two.

Even if they won't say it, the reason they're giving him the free training is because of my statement that Granny confirmed his identity and quest. If the world is dying, they want to do their part to save it, even if it means sacrificing potential income or doing work without immediate reward.

We reach the tavern and head inside, where Daniel and Cassidy are chatting. As usual, he's standing behind the bar, and Cassidy is sitting at it. Today, she's eating berries.

"Good morning," they greet us.

"Good morning," we greet them.

"Let's head out back now," Daniel says.

"See you later," Drake tells me.

"I'm coming out back, too," I tell him. "Going to get a little more practice in."

Part of the reason I'm not as strong as I could be is because I kept my skills up, but focused on things other than strength. It's given me a much leaner build than Drake has, and the last two weeks have made me think about that.

I could definitely build up my natural strength a little more. Right now, I have 7 Strength. That's actually a little on the weaker side of average. By that, I mean that the average starting is 8 Strength to 12 Strength.

I'm not weak, by any means, I just don't have the strength of someone who focuses on it either for training or for their job. Even a farmer would be considered stronger than me.

Because of that, I've been training a little while Drake was, but usually only for an hour before lunch, doing jobs between his start and my return. I'm actually probably close to increasing the stat.

"Okay," Drake says.

The three of us head out back, and I walk over to the training dummies I've been pulling apart when I train, draw my knives, and begin training. Daniel is teaching Drake martial arts in the other part of the yard, and I'm keeping track of them while still focusing on my own training.

After about two hours, I pull off my sweat-soaked tunic and hang it up, then resume my training. Drake's already taken off his tunic, but I'm not focusing on that.

Too much.

Another hour passes, and I contemplate going easier on the training dummies. I've really started breaking them down with my strikes these last two weeks. I've managed to remove several limbs, break one at the base, and just now, I finished removing the head of one.

That's what striking weak points and injuries can allow even someone as weak as me to do. Drake could probably punch a head off with his strength alone if he struck it enough times.

"I don't understand," Drake tells Daniel as I inspect the severed head of the training dummy. "Why does knowing all of this matter? Aren't I strong enough as I am now?"

"We already told you," I look over. "Strength isn't everything."

"I've managed to kill everything with ease."

"Yes," I sheathe my knives and walk over. "In weaker Dungeons. There are bigger Dungeons with more dangerous monsters, including the Crystal Dungeon and the Elemental Trials. In those, you'll need to rely on skill."

"How does skill allow you to fight something stronger?" He asks. "Doesn't speed make up for it?"

"Attack me," I tell him, and he gives me a confused look. "I have 13 Strength less than you, and 9 Agility less. Attack me with everything you have. If you manage to land a quality strike, I'll do whatever you want for two hours tonight. No matter what it is."

His eyes light up, even if there's caution on his face. He's worried about hurting me.

Taking a stance, Drake punches forward. I shift, reach up, and use his momentum to throw him to the ground.

"Oof!" He grunts as he lands, then looks up at me in confusion. "What happened?"

"You lost," I say. "Again."

Drake continues to try to strike me, but each time, I throw him to the ground or cause him to stumble. A few of his stumbles, he falls, though he starts to catch himself. Each attempted strike of his fails to hit me, however, and I can see him starting to grow more and more confused. Daniel, meanwhile, watches us with an amused gaze.

Because Drake's faster than me, he doesn't think I should be able to do anything to him. He also knows that he's heavy enough I can't lift his weight by myself, so my ability to throw him to the ground baffles him.

Nearly twenty minutes later, Drake gives up on attempting to hit me, just lying on the ground where my latest throw sent him, breathing heavily.

"I don't get it," he says. "How could you do that? You're slower than me by a lot, and you aren't strong enough to lift me."

"Strength and speed aren't everything," I tell him. "Skill factors into things as well. You saw me cut chunks off of those training dummies. I did that by striking weak points on them. When you're facing a foe that's tougher than you could normally hurt, you aim for weak points. Having skill helps you do that. So does having a good weapon. Of course, there will be times when you can't hurt it, even with a good weapon, and that's when I'll rely on you."

Daniel snorts.

"As for how I was throwing you," I tell him. "I was using your own momentum. More simply, I was causing you to throw yourself. It's a martial arts style that uses very little strength and focuses on evading attacks while causing the attacks to result in a fumble or fall."

It does take some strength, but because it uses his own momentum against him, that requirement is lightened somewhat.

"But how were you even getting me?" Drake asks. "I'm a lot faster than you! You shouldn't have been able to."

"That's where training comes in as well," I tell him. "A good enough fighter can predict attacks. I judged your stance and made a decision about what you would do based on what I knew of fighting, then acted on those predictions."

"However," Daniel tells Drake. "Had you changed your attacks during that, Nate would have failed to stop you because you are faster than him. He only managed to stop you each time because his predictions worked. If you had managed to land a blow, he likely would have been unable to stop any follow-up attacks. Allow me to demonstrate."

Daniel approaches me as Drake moves to the side to watch, and my master and I begin to fight. He lands strike after strike, blow after blow, because I'm too slow to be able to stop him. I try, but nothing works, and after just a couple of minutes, Daniel throws me to the ground, ending the fight.

"Not bad for an old man," he chuckles.

"Yeah," I wheeze, winded from the impact. "Makes me wonder why you retired."

"Maybe one day, I'll tell you," he chuckles, then holds out a hand.

I take it, and he pulls me back to my feet, then we look at Drake, who's looking upset by something.

"So it isn't just about skill," Daniel tells Drake as I walk over to the table. "But also your strength and speed. Right now, you're abundant in the latter, but lacking in the former."

I open up my Inventory and pull out a salve, which I begin applying to the forming bruises from Daniel's attacks. The strike points are tender, so I gently rub the salve into them, aware that Drake is staring at me as I do it. Ah. He's upset over Daniel hurting me, isn't he?

Will that be problematic in the future? I don't mean an issue between him and Daniel, but if he's getting upset over me getting hurt, does that mean he's falling in love with me? If he has or does, and those feelings remain, how will he be when it's time for him to return to his world and me to remain here?

"He's right," I tell Drake. "And some monsters can be intelligent and capable enough to use weapons, too. You may also have to fight people during the journey. That's why it's important to have the basics of fighting down."

"Okay," he walks over to Daniel, a look of determination on his face. "Teach me more, please."

Daniel resumes the lesson, and I watch for a minute, noticing that Drake is paying more attention now and applying some of the lessons he's received to his training. Once I've rested a few minutes and let the salve start working its magic, I return to my own training.

All of that stops once Cassidy brings lunch out here, then returns to watching the tavern and serving whatever customers we have in there. Daniel sits down to eat with us, though he'll be joining Cassidy in tending the tavern once he finishes, if there are enough customers. If not, then either he or Cassidy will, and the other will probably do some of the jobs we received last night.

"Since the two of you are going to the Crystal Dungeon tomorrow," Daniel say. "I want to make you aware of something. There are twenty total floors to it, and each one has twenty rooms. Four rooms have chests, fifteen have monsters, and one has a boss. The boss room cannot be exited unless the boss is killed, and that's the only room which must be cleared in order to move to the next floor. Each floor is more difficult than the previous, and there are a variety of terrains you may encounter. Each room will have between one and five monsters."

Five is the maximum number of a monsters which can appear in a room, if I remember what I was taught correctly. Even if the rooms have space for many, many more, whoever created the Dungeons set a lower limit. It works out, though, because in more difficult Dungeons, having twenty monsters spawn regularly could kill even stronger teams.

"The chests," he continues. "Are unlikely to have equipment. They may contain food or other supplies, as it's not uncommon to spend three days to a week in the trial, even for bigger teams. The most common supply found in them is a healing salve, and it's even possible to find mana potions."

Mana potions are notoriously difficult to make, resulting in them having a high price. They're an uncommon drop in more difficult Dungeons, so I'd already assumed that would happen in there, though I hadn't expected the trial to have chests in it.

"Why does it take so long for just twenty floors?" Drake asks.

"Three reasons," I tell him. "First, more difficult floors means longer battles, which means it takes more time to go through them. Second, mana regeneration. Unless you have a magic-based Class, it'll take awhile to recover all of your mana, so there tends to be rests between rooms, especially later on."

"Those two things," Daniel tells him. "Lead to the third. It takes awhile to fight, and it exhausts the body and mind. The breaks to recover mana result in it taking longer as well. Even if you rest in that time, you'll still need to sleep at some point. Only truly large teams of powerful adventurers can press on quickly."

"Why?" Drake asks.

"Because," I explain. "If they hit the fifteen-member cap, and all of them are at the upper end of Tier III in two or three Classes, or even have Tier IV Classes, then they can have, say, five to ten members clearing a room while the other members rest. Rotating that way, they can manage to clear the Dungeon much faster, as they don't need to stop and rest as often."

"Indeed," Daniel tells him. "Some parties will even have the resting members stay in one room, then when it's time to rotate out, send someone back to that party, bring them to where the others are, and leave the new group to rest in the room they stopped in. When I did the run, that's how our party did it. We had five resting at any given point in time, apart from when we were fighting the bosses. Using this method, we were able to clear it in only two days."

Dang, that's fast.

"Anyway," Daniel grabs our empty dishes, since we apparently finished eating while he talked. "I have told you all that you need to know. Good luck, you two."