The awkwardness did settle eventually, Sofia regaining her posure. Natalie’s exposing of her body had left the girl briefly a disaster, but she’d pulled together. That was Sofia, mu the same way as Jordan—hard to ruffle, and eve happened, quick to recover. Natalie herself fared poorer. Her head spun in circles. She’d seriously just fshed Sofia? And why had the always-posed girl turned so red at it? More than made sense?

  And, she was disoriented for other reasons. All the other stuff nagging at her hadn’t disappeared. Camille, and her very-possible-knowledge of Natalie’s bathroom escapades. Then the developments with Jordan, their ‘training sessions’ that would shortly bee a staple in her life. In short, Natalie’s head was a mess.

  So, tinuiried-and-true tactic, she focused on the present. The Exge.

  After spars, the three girls set out. Though they wouldn’t be allowed into the dungeon until the start of week, it would be smart to get a feel for the marketpce. And, as Sofia had mentioned, it was an iing pce to visit just for curiosity’s sake. The Exge was, objectively speaking, a fasation. A curiosity simir to the dungeon, if obviously less crucial—though still important—to society.

  Valhaur wasn’t the only try with an Exge. Each of the thirteen dungeons had ouated nearby, and, rather than using any man-made currencies, items were bought and sold through a marketponster cores. Not just that, but the Exges were linked, somehow. Items from halfway across the world could be dissolved into the Exge, then reformed thousands of miles away at a different one.

  Setting out from the Te campus, too, was nice. Getting to see more of Aradon. She’d walked her way through a few streets orip from the train station, first arriving to Aradon, but she hadn’t explored the sprawling capital city of Valhaur. And, with the Exge and dungeora far from Te, she didn’t do much expl now, either, heading straight there. But the colorful bustle of the city was enjoyable on its ow, for what little of it she saw.

  Soon enough, they’d arrived. The Exge was—as she’d expected it to be—unlike anything she’d ever seen. Four stories of marble arches and cool gray ste ats, it stood out from the rest of Aradon’s architecture, the bright vibrancy that was the trademark of northern Valhaurian fashion. Run by the automatons, the Valhaurian Exge made only marginal efforts to blend with the architecture of their human terparts. Automatons were genial folk—subservient by their nature—but only to aent. In the aesthetics of the Exge’s stru, they paid little mind to ‘fitting in’. Cool, gray, stalwart. Just like them.

  Trailing through the entrance, surrounded by a veritable stream of other bodies, Natalie gaped around at the immacute interior. While not adhering to the rest of Valhaur architecture, the building was as grand as the best of what Aradon had to offer. A det k of the world ey flowed through these elegant archways ah these enormous domes, and the Exge’s importance gleamed from polished tiles to delicate, three-story-tall windows.

  It was also crisply ahe defining trait of automatons. Clearly marked signs fuhe various tele to appropriate locations. The Exge was—outwardly if not inwardly—anized into floors, where each successive oered to more and more distinguished delvers. Natalie, Jordan, and Sofia were naturally restricted to the base floor, the oended for levels ohrough five, or ‘low-rankers’ in colloquial terms.

  Natalie had heard all sorts of stories about the fourth floor, intended for levels sixteen through twenty. That the Exge even had a floor dedicated to top rankers seemed a bit silly when they were so rare. Even Aradon, where delvers gregated, the floor had to be a ghost town, sidering its size and infrequency of visitors.

  She’d like to sneak in, see which of those tales were truthful, but security at the Exge was strict. It was as much a bank as a marketpce. Monster cores flowed like rivers between human and automaton hands. Ah Natalie’s feet, mountains of those valuable, crystalline orbs id in piles, anized into racks behind ented, foot-thick metal vaults. Undoubtedly, there was wealth enough to make a Beaumon’s eyes water, not more than a hundred feet away.

  Natalie had never heard of someone successfully robbing the Exge, not in its millennia of existence. How that ossible, she hadn’t a clue. Eventually, she would’ve figured, a particurly enterprising group of top-rankers would’ve pulled it off. But no. Was it the automaton’s defenses, she wondered, or Aradon’s?

  The eve well enough. The three of them gawked around at the sights, acing themselves to the yout of the enormous building. Though the Exge ran on some inscrutable, certainly magical logistical system, it lit up into ses the way most marketpces were: armor, ons, tris, and so on. Automatons were stubborn about their ways. anization was a virtue they held above all others.

  And speaking of automatons—what a curiosity those were, and in suumbers at the Exge. Some could be found in other pces, but nowhere in such density.

  Natalie had seen one, of course, though whether The Bestower, that stray in charge of doling out csses, was a true automaton for debate. Still, their alien physiology wasn’t a plete y. They were more uniform than humans, with most being strictly androgynous, hly simir height and build, and posed of silver metal-like skin and cobalt-blue ats.

  Frieoo, than The Bestower, because automatons were natural servants. Not because humanity owhem—they were creations of the Architect, a blessing given to humans to aid them, but certainly not owned—but because that was their natural state. They wished to serve, anize, and manage, and always with that pristine air of friendly professionalism.

  By the way the start of the trip went, Natalie almost thought they’d make it through without i. Unfortunately, she was never so lucky. And the debacle occurred in su odd way. Cheg out the armor and oions was mundane, as far as visiting the Exge could be called such, but reag the accessory portion of the hall, and being atteo an automaton, something strange happened.

  Automatons had some inexplicable way of finding items in the Exge that could aid a particur delver in their adventures. S through the endless archives of items stored in the system’s magical depths, they could pluck out something suited to a person’s css, and that fit to their level and css requirements.

  So Natalie supposed she should have knower. Asking an automaton for an accessory that might help her down in the dungeon? Her? With the css she had?

  “What is that?” she hissed, gng side to side in horror, seeing if anyone aying attention. No one was, obviously, and Natalie forcibly calmed herself. The only reason someone would look over was if she made a big deal of things. But … heavens above. The ‘accessory’ the automaton had summoned.

  “A dildo,” the automaton replied. She tilted her head, intrigued. “How curious. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these.”

  “S-Send it back. Someone’ll see.” Natalie’s face had turned red in record time. Could her css ever give her a break? It was always something.

  “Very well.” With a swish of a metallid, the hazy image of the item disappeared. In typical fashion, it’d been summoned above the ter, brought to life through whatever magical means only automatons had access to. “Though, the Exge chose it for you. It believes it’s a good fit. Perhaps you should resider.”

  A good fit? She bet it would be, and in more than one way. But now was really not the time. Besides, if she really needed ohere were cheaper pces to get something like that.

  Though …

  “And what does it do, anyway? Is it … special?” Because it was on the Exge—which meant dungeon loot. A dildo from the dungeon. Heavens above.

  “I ’t i it without having maed its image,” the automaton said calmly. She seemed fused why Natalie set, though she had reized the item, so Natalie didn’t get why she was clueless. Then again, this person wasn’t human, so, sure. Made sense she didn’t uand social norms, or propriety in general.

  What a mess.

  “L-Look at it quickly. Then make it go away.”

  The automatohe diligent servant—did so.

  “And?” Natalie asked. She would have ied the item herself, but she couldn’t The Exge stopped her. Maybe the item didn’t actually ma, only an image of it.

  “It seems its imbued with a pleasure-enhang effect,” the woman said cheerfully.

  And, notably, she said it loud enough to make Natalie wince. She looked around again, saw she was fortunately still in the clear, theured, with a bit of a panicked desperation to it, for the automaton to speak quieter. “Seriously. Some discretion, please.”

  Though … pleasure enhang?

  “And that’s a thing?” Natalie asked. “Items like those, from the dungeon?”

  “The dungeoes all sorts of wonders.” She frow the spot where the ghostly image of the dildo had disappeared. “Though something that atypical, certainly less frequently.” She looked up, then tilted her head at Natalie. “I wonder, what css do you have that the Exge would suggest it?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Natalie said quickly. “H-How much was it?”

  “Twenty two first-tier cores.”

  She choked. That much? “It’s not even useful in a fight!”

  “I don’t think it’s inteo be used on a monster, Miss,” the automaton replied hesitantly.

  “Obviously! I just meant—!” She cut off, realizing, in the absurdity of the situation, her volume had spiked. She’d drawn a colle of looks her way. Red faced, she forced herself to calm, then in a more level tone, said, “I meant I need practical items. Something I could use against monsters.”

  “The Exge thought it ractical. Not every useful item is fhting, specifically.” Shrugging, though, the automaton tinued, “Specify a price range, and we find something more suited to your liking.”

  The rest of the iion tinued without i. She got much more uandable reeems, no more sex toys. But … sheesh. That had really happened?

  And the dildo had a pleasure enhang effect tied to it? It was a shame the item was on the general Exge, and not Te’s branatalie might have sidered scraping together the funds, impractical as it would be. Shortly, though, she would be barred from this marketpce, limited to Te’s branly.

  But the possibility had been introduced. Getting items like that from the dungeon was something that could happen.

  sidering Natalie’s css, and how the dungeon ofteems appropriate to a person’s css, would she be finding some of her own toys, eventually? Naturally?

  That would be … iing.

  And an awkward discussion with her team.