Having a group of beautiful women cheering you on always makes hard labor easier to handle. This was a fact that I learned a while back but always made me smile when I was reminded. That and the mystic power to turn my body into something equivalent to an organic excavator.

  As I burrowed into the hill, I pressed the soil in tightly to the ceiling and walls so that the rounded tunnel would support its own weight and not collapse on my head. The soil was easy enough to dig through, being somewhat sandy, but it required quite a bit of effort to compact so it would support its own weight.

  While I dug, I carefully monitored my mana levels. While I still had some earth crystals in my inventory and the girls had their mana infused metals, this wasn’t something that I thought would be worth burning money to speed up, despite having quite a bit of the infused currency at my disposal.

  The girls shifted their blanket so they could see down into the tunnel I was creating, and Shayla even formed then sent in one of her light spells so I would have no problem seeing while I worked. So I did my best to not shovel dirt on top of them, though Kassandra might have gotten a bit of dirt tossed her way when she made a tease about offering to wash my pants for me since they were dirty.

  Since I started at the base of the hill, I had to dig through a good fifteen feet of soil before I hit my target.

  The stone that I had detected was similar to the boulders that lay scattered all around the area, but rather than the irregular shapes and craggy faces, these were formed into regular shapes and close-fitting. The bricks were easily as thick as my waist and from the bit I could get through the sensing spell, just as wide. But I hadn’t been burrowing straight for a wall. Instead, I’d aimed for a gap in the stone structure.

  The window that sat in front of me was blocked off with a mixture of dirt and stone, showing that whatever lay above it had collapsed in on itself in the distant past, a past illustrated by just how settled the debris were.

  Tapping the stone with my claws, I sent one more ping through it, letting the spell work its way through the dirt and bounce off the denser stones until it broke free into an empty space on the other side.

  “Jackpot,” I murmured with a grin and turned to head back out to where the girls were waiting.

  “Well?” Jane demanded, her little feet drumming the ground in anxiety as she waited for an answer.

  “Unless there are other buried structures in the area, this is the place,” I answered with a grin.

  Jane let out an excited squeal, her long tail whipping through the air like a frantic snake before she dodged around me and ducked into the opening of the tunnel.

  “Jane!” Rieka called after her. “Don’t go alone, there might be threats.”

  “It’s fine. I didn’t break through the wall. It’s going to require Manipulate Element and I am getting low on mana,” I explained to my wolfish princess and she relaxed. Her tail never slowed from its rapid beat back and forth while she gave me a brilliant smile.

  “Then you should have a break and rest, Liam. I’m still astonished that you are able to hold mana within yourself,” Shayla urged, reaching up to touch my hand like she wanted to pull me down next to her, but didn’t want to overreach her familiarity with me.

  Kassandra, however, had no such hesitation.

  The dwarf lamia hit me at speed in a flying tackle that threw me right on my ass. I hadn’t been looking her way when she launched her attack, and my Nugget hadn’t given me any warning either. While I had the strength and durability to not break when she tackled me like this, the reality is her several hundred pounds of lamia moving at high speeds easily overwhelmed my casual balance.

  Landing with a loud oof of surprise under the affectionate coils of my snuggle spaghetti, I was immediately assaulted with affectionate kisses and caresses as Kassandra waged a one-woman war of affection with my body as the battlefield.

  “Kass, if you crush him then that would be a poor repayment to his hard work,” Rieka said dryly from behind my redheaded whirlwind, but Kassandra ignored her.

  “Brilliant and skilled, my Liam is the best!” Kassandra cheered after several minutes of affectionate abuse that meant a fair bit of the dirt from my skin had transferred to hers. She’d both wrapped three layers of coils around my waist and legs, as well as kissed every inch of my face.

  “Happy to provide the same quality service as always,” I laughed, letting my arms settle around her slim torso and pull her to me.

  This gesture further squished her generous chest to mine, a sensation that I appreciated as her underbust corset acted more like a bra than the more traditional full-coverage option. Something that Kassandra clearly approved of as she hummed happily and wriggled harder against me.

  Before Kassandra could return to her assault, a shadow above me blocked the sun and I glanced up to see Rieka with a small wooden plate in one hand looming over us.

  “If you insist on doing this, then we need to make sure Liam actually has time to recover,” Rieka said with a long-suffering sigh that was confirmed as a lie by how fast her tail was whipping behind her.

  Rieka folded her legs and settled down next to my head on her knees. Kassandra propped herself up on my chest to peek over the edge of the plate with a grin before she dove down and wrapped herself tighter around my chest, ‘pinning’ all four of my arms down in the process.

  “Looks like you’ll have to feed it to him, Rieka,” Kassandra teased. “He’s not in any condition to feed himself.”

  “As expected,” Rieka rolled her eyes at Kassandra, but when she met my eyes, I got only smiles from my princess.

  So I lay there while Rieka tore bites off the sandwich that she’d made for me and fed them to me, intermixed with Kassandra stealing kisses.

  Jane returned from inspecting the tunnel at a sprint that almost turned into a tripping skid when she came out to find two of my girls piled on top of me.

  “Wha?” Jane squeaked and promptly covered her eyes with her hands, sliding to a stop and turning about.

  “It’s fine, Jane. He’s still got his pants on,” Shayla called from out of sight, prompting me to crane my neck to peek at my winged lover.

  Shayla was sitting in her spot still, but she had her sketchbook out and was furiously working away with a stick of charcoal while her antennae bopped and waved contentedly.

  Is she drawing this mess? I wondered silently while I chewed. Why am I asking, of course she is. The only question is if my lovely little artist is drawing us as-is, or making it perverse somehow.

  I’d seen more than a few of Shayla’s drawings that were angled towards the risqué, which amused me to no end given her shy demeanor. That most of them featured me in one fashion or another was at the same time a given from being a model for her, and actually rather flattering.

  “What the heck is going on?” Jane demanded, spinning around to stare at the pile I was a part of just as Rieka poked my cheek with another bite of sandwich. I obliged her and ate it, while Rieka answered the question.

  “Kassandra decided she wanted to thank Liam for his hard work, and I’m helping him recover his strength for when we go deeper.”

  “I’ll help him recover his strength by going deeper,” Kassandra murmured, punctuating it with a kiss on my nose and a wriggle of her hips against me.

  Jane eep’d cutely, but I noticed that she didn’t look away at the innuendo. In fact, I was pretty sure that she was staring even harder given how her tail froze and the fluffy tip puffed up to the point it almost looked like a q-tip.

  “Not right now, Kass,” I said quickly once I swallowed.

  Kassandra shot me a pouty look, her lower lip sticking out like a penitent worshiper begging for the gods forgiveness in supplication. It was so adorable, I couldn’t help the instinct to lean up and kiss her lightly while the hands on her back shifted down to cup her bottom through her skirt.

  “I said ‘right now,’ ” I reminded her after we parted, shooting my redheaded lover a grin. “That doesn’t give any guarantees for later though. You got yourself all dirty thanking me like this, and while we don’t have the wood or supplies for a proper bath, I can help you clean up.”

  “Yes!” Kassandra answered with a happy squeal before diving in to bury me with more kisses.

  <><><>

  In order to get a feel for what to expect when we went in the following day, it was decided that I’d burn through one of the earth aligned crystals I had as well as most of my remaining mana to dig through the collapsed part of the structure. It took quite a bit of focus, because I had to reinforce the collapsed structure above us so that it wouldn’t just shift.

  The girls waited in the tunnel, ready to cover for me if something went wrong. We’d talked about it before and the plan was that if something went bad and the ceiling fell on me, they’d immediately banish me back to Earth so that I could escape. From there, they could either summon me back to heal or plan for the next steps via the Contact Contracted Companion power.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  The soil flowed and shifted, steadying and lifting the stones so that they could support themselves without crumbling. What resulted was a wide and low tunnel that was about three feet tall and extended through the thirty feet of collapsed building. The tunnel was much like the one I’d made through the cave-in at the pseudo-train-station that we’d been at in the other location, but my skills had improved since then as well to make it easier.

  The extra soil that I didn’t use for supports and some from the tunnel was fashioned into a compressed block which would fit into the passage while we were gone to secure it, though I left it to one side and called the girls forward.

  “Okay, nothing tried to jump through and attack me, so I think it's safe to go through. I’m still going in first, but Shayla, can you transfer the light from the tunnel onto me or give me a new one?” I asked, dusting my hands off and stretching.

  I still hadn’t bothered to put a shirt back on, since I was covered in dirt and mud from the work. This resulted in more than a few appreciative glances from my girls and I was debating if I needed to snap my fingers to break them out of it when Shayla nodded.

  “Sure, just give me a moment, Liam.”

  “Just attach it here please?” I asked, rolling my shoulders and using Shape-Shifting to press out an armored and segmented tail with a scorpion stinger on it from my back. The tail actually protruded from my lower back, so it qualified as one for once, but I moved it with familiar ease.

  I figured that having a light with me would be good, but I didn’t want to let it turn me into a target, so being able to keep it away from my body would be key. So I went with the tail rather than having her attach the light to my head like some kind of mining helmet.

  A moment later, the brilliant sphere of light settled onto the knobbly top of my scorpion tail just above where the six-inch long stinger extended. I made sure my tail was stretched above me to not blind them as we went over the next steps.

  “I’ll go ahead and scout the next room. When I say it’s clear, you come through one at a time. Kass, will you wait till last? You’ll have the easiest time moving in the lower tunnel due to your tail. Jane, I’d like you to go in first so I have support quickly because your size will let you get through almost as fast.”

  “Sure, that works,” Jane said with a smile, her slim chest puffing up at being the one I wanted covering my back.

  “Rieka should go after Jane then,” Shayla interjected next. “I’ll take the longest to get through, so you should have support quickly if we need it.”

  “Works for me,” Rieka said with a shrug, twirling her spell rod in one hand like it was a short-sword.

  All of my girls carried some kind of melee weapon with them, and Rieka had her bow with her as well. There had yet to be a time that they needed to use them, but it was always better to have the weapons and not need them. Jane had a short sword of her own, while Shayla had staff with her that was iron-banded on both ends. Kassandra and Rieka both carried swords on their hips, though Kassandra had a long dagger to go with hers.

  With the plan set, I squatted down and crawled quickly through the wide tunnel, keeping my tail close to my back and thrusting the light ahead of me. I wasn’t worried about brushing the walls, since I’d made sure they were well supported and compacted.

  I had a feeling for the shape of the next room, but the pulse of magic that I’d been sending every so often only told me the shape of the open space and if there was anything moving in it. Since I detected stillness, I just hurried through for now, pausing twice to scan ahead for any changes in the bright light that was attached to my tail.

  Emerging from the tunnel, I found myself in a partially collapsed room. The ceiling had fallen in behind me, which was what I’d dug through to get here. It looked like the upper floor had been supported by large columns at one point that were made of the same stone that most of the building had been constructed of. Several of those columns lay askew and shattered but formed the bulwark that had propped up the rest of the room.

  The floor was a thick stone tile covered in dense layers of dust that, other than where I’d moved, lay entirely undisturbed. I didn’t feel that same weight of timeless patience that had imbued the previous ruins, so I wasn’t surprised that there was little to nothing in the room besides dust and stone.

  Broken stone from the collapsed ceiling and walls was scattered amongst the rusted remains of some kind of fixtures. Whether they were bindings for doors and tables, or the remains of ancient candelabra fallen from the ceilings. I guessed that rugs covered the floor at one point, but they had long since rotted away, leaving an odd pattern of stains on the ancient gray stone.

  “Come on through,” I called while surveying the ruins. I could see a pair of entryways in the far wall that led deeper into the complex, their doors missing which left them as yawning dark slots in the wall, like a pair of wounds in the hide of some stony beast.

  A bit of rapid scrabbling echoed around the room and I tensed before I realized it was just Jane. The mouse kin woman popped out of the slot behind me a moment later, her long tail whipping about as she steadied herself and yanked her spell rod back out of her belt.

  “Wow,” Jane breathed, and I glanced over to find her studying the walls and floor with interest. “So much is missing, but you can tell a lot from what it left behind!”

  More scrambling in the tunnel told me Rieka was moving, so I stepped to one side and drew Jane with me, swaying my lit tail back and forth to banish the shadows from behind the pillars. Nothing new was revealed, but the movement of the light gave me the impression that there were designs carved into the pillars that remained upright.

  “Like what?” I asked Jane as she crowded in close behind me, her free hand resting on my hip to steady herself.

  “The patterns on the floor. Whatever was in here rotted away, rather than burned. So we know that the building was left unoccupied for a long time. The patterns on the floor don’t show any bloodstains, so no one died here either.”

  “Would blood remain after so long?” I asked as Rieka’s blonde braid emerged and my princess scrambled to her feet.

  “No, but the discolorations in the stone would remain. Without sun to bleach them or movement to disturb them, there would still be pigments. And those don’t erode since there isn’t anything organic to rot at that point. We’ve found cave drawings that we believe are tens of thousands of years old, but there’s no way to tell for sure,” Jane answered with an energetic bounce.

  I could tell that the curious woman wanted to race off and explore the ruins, but with our previous encounters in these places, we had to be far more careful in the inspection.

  “It looks like a library or a study,” Rieka added her opinion as more scraping and some quiet—but rather cute—cursing told me Shayla was moving through the opening now.

  “Possibly, I was thinking a lecture hall myself,” Jane said, stepping to one side to kick at a bit of rusted metal that looked like it had been a torch holder at one point. The metal fell apart with a clatter, vanishing into a cloud of rust particles.

  “Kassandra is definitely going to be glad you promised to wash her when we get done here,” Rieka snickered.

  “What was that?” Kassandra called from the other side of the tunnel. “I heard my name, are you talking bad about me to Liam?”

  “We’d never do that, Nugget,” I called back to her as Shayla’s antennae emerged from the passage and Rieka bent to help the moth woman upright.

  “Oh that was unpleasant, but not as bad as the other one at least,” Shayla sighed, her wings flexing and pumping several times now that she’d emerged. She had a bit of dirt smudged across her nose from rubbing her face and a bit on her dress from having to crawl, but she still managed to look gorgeous.

  “Well you’ll have to make the trip a few more times, but I’m glad that you are done with it for now,” I gave her a kiss on the forehead before urging her to one side as Kassandra scooted through, emerging at a speed similar to a jog if she’d had legs.

  “Good to see you remembered to keep your head up this time,” Rieka teased. “Was wondering if you’d have ducked too low and scooped dirt with your tits again, Kass.”

  “I did that one time,” Kassandra huffed in annoyance, folding her arms under said tits. “Once! And you still won’t let me live it down.”

  “Because it was hilarious,” Rieka countered.

  Before they could get started, I interrupted them with a quick wave between them.

  “Come on, ladies. Let’s scout out this area real quick to see what we are dealing with, then go set up for the night. We will give the place a serious look tomorrow, but we are looking to get a feel for the ruins right now.”

  “You are right, sorry Liam,” Rieka apologized immediately, her ears laying back on her head.

  Since we were not in the public at the moment, I reassured Rieka with a hand on her head, lightly stroking her hair and tickling one of her ears. She moaned quietly and nuzzled into the hand, a faint blush coloring her cheeks. Kassandra got the same treatment when I turned to find her pouting at me, but I threw in a kiss to appease my snuggle-noodle as well.

  With the girls covering one of the two doors, I went to check the leftmost one. They moved as a group behind me, leaving around ten feet of distance between us. Shayla conjured a second orb of light and had it ready to use as a weapon if needed while holding her magnifying glass in her off hand.

  Not sure of what to expect, I gave my arms armor via a layer of scales. My right arm gained long claws on each finger while my left moulded into the dactyl club that I had used to such brutal efficiency the last few encounters. I held back a large amount of mass for the moment so I could shift it on a dime if I needed to change anything.

  The first door that I checked opened up into another room that I guessed had been storage, based on the larger piles of rusted metal that resembled barrel hoops and other accoutremont. I checked the walls, ceiling and floor for any other signs, but other than the bits of ancient metal, there wasn’t much in the room.

  Backtracking to the girls, we moved on to the next door to find a long hallway that had several more doors opening off of it. This was in slightly better condition, with less decay having eaten away at it and whatever had caused the collapse of the previous room hadn’t disturbed the hall.

  Stone statues decorated the back wall, time having discolored the art pieces but still left their features mostly intact. Jane squeaked in excitement at those and once I had prodded them a few times to make sure they weren’t golems, ran over to inspect the nearest.

  “This hallway goes quite a ways into the building,” Rieka murmured, peering down the hall while she stood ready. Shayla and Kassandra flanked her while I checked the other entryways that sat on the far side of the hall. Those opened into more rooms that I guessed were either storage or offices. One had a far larger pile of rusting metal against the wall that looked like it had once been either a desk or a table, though nothing remained on top of it or in the broken remains under it.

  “Clear, nothing here either. Do we keep going deeper or go set up camp?” I asked, returning to the group. We’d only scouted a few rooms, but covered maybe two or three hundred feet of ground so far.

  “Camp,” Kassandra said.

  “Keep going!” Jane exclaimed barely half a second after Kassandra.

  “I think we should camp. Liam spent a lot of mana getting this prepped and we should have our protector at full strength before we go too deep,” Shayla said shyly.

  I shrugged, glancing at Rieka to let her know I was abstaining and she nodded decisively.

  “We’ll go set up camp then. Shayla is right, Liam needs to be at full strength if this place is anything like the last one we went into. And we need to make use of the last light of day properly. Sorry, Jane.”

  The mouse kin sighed but nodded in understanding, her rounded ears falling to either side in depression. Her excitement to explore and learn would not overcome the logic of Rieka’s argument.

  “Come on, Jane. I’ve got something new for you all to celebrate finding the ruins in my Dimensional Pocket,” I said, sidling over to gently stroke the top of the smaller girl’s head. She gave another quiet eep of surprise, but perked up.

  “Oh? What do you have, Liam?” Jane asked shyly when I removed my hand from her head.

  “It’s actually something kids back home love. They make them in bizarre and fun shapes, but my favorite will always be gummy-worms.”

  ----

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