Growth Hero 2 Read online

  Growth Hero 2

  Brent Tyman

  Edited by

  Dutch Palmer

  Copyright © 2021 Brent Tyman.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Appendix

  Groups

  LitRPG Group

  1

  I blinked at the mass of rubble blocking yet another way out of this tunnel system. Part of me had been hoping it was all just an illusion, one that would fade away if I touched it.

  Unfortunately, a firm poke with my index finger confirmed that it was all too real, and this was another dead end.

  “Well, I’m fairly sure that’s the last route to check,” I said, turning back to Juliana and Clarissa. “You sure I can’t give this one a few hits to see if we can clear it?”

  “Hmm…” Clarissa mused, her mouth slowly rising into a grin. “While I would love to see those strapping muscles of yours at work, handsome, I doubt it would change anything at this rate.”

  “I agree,” Juliana remarked, nodding her head. “After Daiver made that other tunnel collapse right on top of him, we cannot take such risks carelessly.”

  My eyes had already begun to wander to their cleavages which I was sure had dipped lower these past few days. Naturally, both women had their RGB color scheme dresses in order, as was usual, with Juliana sporting a refined red dress that exposed her shoulders while Clarissa had opted for a green dress that clung tightly, displaying her curves to greatest advantage.

  Clarissa had always been the more revealing of the two, but I had noticed that Juliana had gradually started expressing more… of herself.

  I shook my head to get back on track when I noticed the women staring back at me with knowing smiles. Clearly, my thoughts had been evident on my face.

  “Let’s head back and report in,” I said.

  “We are all alone in this deep, dark tunnel, handsome,” Clarissa remarked. “I feel a little chilly. What about you, Juliana?”

  “Oh, yes” Juliana grinned. “The air is quite frigid here. Perhaps we need something to warm us up?”

  I rolled my eyes at their antics, but grinned all the same. In one smooth motion, I wrapped my arms around both of them as we headed back towards the Beastkin town of Valdura.

  To think that these two women, both heirs to powerful nations in this world, were my girlfriends was something I never could have imagined before. At least not when my life had mostly consisted of coming home from work to grind out the latest RPG game, week after week.

  It had been nearly half a week since we had repelled the Ogre attack on the Beastkin town and, after a few days of helping with various tasks that needed doing around the town, we had spent the rest of our time looking for a way to the surface.

  I had thought it would be easy, since I didn’t think we were that far below ground when the tunnel had collapsed behind us.

  Unfortunately, this tunnel system the Beastkins’ ancestors had devised many decades ago, was not what could be described as redundant—not in the slightest.

  The Troglodread that had attacked us on our way to the Beastkin town had collapsed the limited number of passageways to the surface at multiple points. While the Beastkin had managed to clear away the rubble where we had first encountered that monster, its damage had irrevocably made that passageway unusable.

  “Any idea how we are supposed to get out of here?” I asked and the two women were silent as they pondered the question.

  “I’ve believed our only recourse is to convince the Beastkin to aid us in clearing one of the tunnels to the surface,” Juliana suggested. “The main route should still be mostly intact, despite all that’s happened.”

  “Good luck with that,” Clarissa hummed. “The Beastkin seem far too content to lick their wounds and take their time rebuilding the town. I’m sure assigning workers to clear rubble out of our away is far down their list of priorities.”

  She wasn’t wrong.

  The Beastkin, while thankful for our aid, had put all their efforts into rebuilding the town. It had taken Juliana an entire day to convince Grotsanik, the new Beastkin leader of Valdura, to send several of his fellow Beastkin to help dig out any men still trapped by our first encounter with the Troglodread.

  “I’ll admit, I know where they are coming from, but it does kinda suck to be stuck here,” I said. “What was the estimate on when they would be able to spare enough workers for us?”

  “Twenty-seven days was the most optimistic figure I managed to wrangle from Grotsanik,” Juliana said with a frown.

  I winced. Yeah, I really didn’t want to stick around here that long.

  There was grinding to be done, after all.

  “Looks like we’ll have to figure this out ourselves,” I said as we turned a corner in this particular tunnel. One good thing about this place was that there were no enemies left to worry about, making the search for the way to the surface fairly safe.

  I still wore my armor though, just in case, which made it a bit strange for the women to enjoy walking along close together, tucked into my sides. My armor was fairly cold to the touch, after all.

  “I know!” Clarissa suddenly declared. “Why don’t we have Alex go into Grotsanik’s stone house and demand he help us.”

  “Uhh,” I said. “How is that any different from Juliana doing the same thing these past few days?”

  “Because it’s you, Alex,” Clarissa said, her answer leaving a slight echo behind that reverberated in the confines of the tunnel.

  “While Alex’s feats are certainly the talk of the town,” Juliana muttered, “I don’t understand how it would convince Grotsanik any more than my own efforts have done. The fact that he would refuse the heir to the Sovereignty, at all, is quite baffling.”

  “Well,” Clarissa grinned as she rubbed her hands together. “I heard some tasty rumors of late, from that retainer of yours in fact, Juliana. What was her name again… Oh yes! Kesara.”

  At the mention of Kesara’s name, Juliana immediately rolled her eyes, but Clarissa continued on, regardless.

  “There’s talk that all the Beastkin women have taken quite a liking to our handsome Alex. All they talk about, is his refined prowess and lengthy… equipment.”

  Juliana’s face heated up at that last part and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Haha, I can’t believe there would be rumors floating around
like that about me,” I said.

  “It’s only natural, Alex,” Clarissa winked. “You’re quite the catch. Anyway, my point is that your quite popular amongst the Beastkin—perhaps Grotsanik will give more heed to your words than Juliana’s.”

  The smirk that normally rested on Clarissa’s pouty lips suddenly burst into a sly grin. “Surely anything will be better than Juliana’s drab diplomacy.”

  “Formality is exactly how one conducts themselves during such proceedings,” Juliana whipped back.

  “I’m fairly sure it bores anyone to tears after a few sittings… unless showering them with boredom is part of your strategy?” Clarissa quipped. “You need to be less… Hmm… What’s the word? Frigid! That’s the one!”

  “Excuse me, you lascivious minx! I’ll have you know…” I heard Juliana scoff before I opted to tune out their squabble.

  Despite my best efforts, Juliana and Clarissa still disagreed on many things, but that was to be expected. My harem dream was very much intact, though, and the women’s arguments had become far less heated over these past few days.

  Well… relatively speaking, at least.

  As the women did their thing, I noticed we had emerged from our tunnel to find the front gate of the Beastkin town directly in front of us. They kept the gates wide open with plenty of guards milling about but they didn’t bother to stop anyone from entering.

  Not that they would be seeing anyone new here, at least not for a while. We were still very much stuck down here.

  “What time is it?” Clarissa asked, abruptly ending her wrangle with Juliana surprisingly early.

  “It’s a couple of hours till midnight, I think,” I answered. “Not that it matters when we sleep, the Beastkin are up at every hour, it feels like.”

  “I believe they have become accustomed to not following a proper day and night schedule, due to the lack of sunlight,” Juliana explained. “While my tutor’s stories about their culture fascinated me, I’ll admit the constant construction of new furnaces at night has been difficult to sleep through.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Clarissa beamed, a sly twinkle in her eye. “You seem to fall asleep quickly and sleep deeply after your… nightly activities with Alex.”

  Juliana’s face heated up, as usual, and Clarissa grinned as the woman sputtered out a retort.

  “That’s… That’s… Oh my,” Juliana breathed. “To think that I would act like this, when I finally found a worthy suitor.”

  Juliana shook her head and simply smiled at me. “My Father will be beside himself with the news but… I don’t believe I will care for his opinion.”

  I smiled back at her, before a thought occurred to me.

  “Didn’t your father want you back at Tringall as soon as possible? Did he offer any solutions to our issue of being stuck down here?” I asked and Juliana looked away with a small frown.

  “Ugh. He simply told me to get on with it, as if those words mean anything. His interest in this Beastkin affair dried up, the moment he heard news of our success.”

  “I would contact my father,” Clarissa said with a shrug, “but I’m thankfully not in his Clan. Aw well.”

  “Yes, something you have reminded me of many times already,” Juliana quipped.

  “Let’s put our heads together with the rest of the party,” I said. “I’m sure we can figure out a solution to this soon enough.”

  I looked up at the giant furnaces that were bolted onto the ceiling. The square shapes I could see numbered far less than when we’d initially arrived. I had dumped quite a number of them onto the Titan who had attacked the town.

  Most of the losses were from the resulting explosion we had caused—an explosion that had rocked the entire town.

  There were many Beastkin, especially cat girls, repairing the pipes that connected the furnaces together in a town-wide network.

  And, as Juliana had mentioned previously, they spent all day and all night doing it.

  I didn’t mind living in the Beastkin town for now, but as the heat from the furnaces washed over me, I realized that while these Beastkin liked staying cozy, with their thermostats set ridiculously high, it was uncomfortably hot for the rest of us.

  Hopefully, we would find our way back to the surface sooner rather than later.

  “Actually,” Clarissa said. “Why don’t we have Alex talk to Grotsanik right now?”

  “Now?” I questioned and Clarissa nodded, smirking.

  “Of course, I’m sure he will despair when he sees Juliana bringing him her troubles for a second time today, but will be much more accommodating when you start talking.”

  “Again, as the heirs of our nations, there are very defined rules of etiquette to take into account,” Juliana said.

  “I suppose it couldn’t hurt to see if I can convince him to dig out one of the tunnels we looked at today,” I said. “One of them could provide us a straightforward route to the surface.”

  We walked along the streets of the Beastkin town and, since Clarissa had mentioned it, I could tell there was a hint of warmness in the Beastkins’ eyes as soon as they recognized me.

  At first, I had thought that was just how the Beastkin were, but maybe Clarissa wasn’t entirely off when she’d mentioned how popular I was here.

  The cat girls were especially interesting to watch, as they reacted to my presence. The short cat ears that stood high on their heads wiggled as they whispered their ‘Nyaa’s’ to each other.

  “Nyaa! Look, it’s the Alex human!”

  “He’s quite strong for a human, Nyaa.”

  “He helped us with the furnaces, Nyaa.”

  “Really, Nyaa?”

  Even though I had been in town for several days, there were still plenty of Beastkin who reacted just like this. No doubt Kesara was also feeding them her gossip.

  As far as the reconstruction went, the town was well on its way from being a complete ruin, to being only mildly in ruins. The edges of town had remained largely intact, but anywhere where the Titan had trod had instantly been turned into rubble.

  Not to mention, the explosion we had caused had also resulted in significant structural damage. As far as anyone could tell, though, there was nothing too severe on that front.

  The streets had quite a few Beastkin going about their business, but many walked with a firm purpose in their step, some of their faces blurring at times as they whisked past me.

  There was still a lot of work left to do, to bring the town back to its former state of glory, after all.

  We arrived at Grotsanik’s stone house after navigating a few more streets. He had yet to move into the former elder’s abode, mostly due to the fact that the Titan had crushed that building into tiny bits of gravel in very short order.

  In terms of aesthetics, Grotsanik’s house had the same look as all the other stone houses in the vicinity—a red painted door frame being the most obvious difference.

  His house was also the only Beastkin abode to have guards outside it, which highlighted his new status here.

  “Come to try again, eh?” A Beastkin guard grinned at Juliana as he waved us through. “If you insist, my lady.”

  “Perhaps things will be different this time,” Juliana replied as she gave me a knowing look.

  The guards parted for us, and we stepped through the red doorframe into Grotsanik’s home.

  As it was with every other Beastkin house, all of the furniture was made of stone. A fireplace roared at the far end of the room, despite the already warm temperature, and I could feel my skin protest the additional heat.

  Jeez…

  Do Beastkin really hate the cold so much? I wished for a cool breeze and cool air from the surface.

  Grotsanik sat in the middle of his small home, idly scribbling on a parchment with what looked to be a quill wrapped in stone. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at that; it was as close as I’d come to seeing a pen in this world thus far.

  “Grotsanik,” Juliana prompted as we stood in front o
f his desk. “We wish to talk.”

  “One moment if you would,” the Beastkin replied with one hand raised as he finished the sentence he was working on, adding a bit of flourish to his final strokes.

  He set the stone quill down and grasped his hands together neatly before him.

  “Ahh, my Lady Tasberg, I am afraid that nothing has changed since the last time we spoke. There are still not enough of my kin done with their reconstruction duties to clear out a tunnel to the surface for your party,” he said before letting out a weary sigh.

  Grotsanik looked like he had barely slept a wink these past few days. His snow-white fur looked like it had been doused in rubble and only haphazardly cleaned since then, leaving a strange, grimy gray hue to it.

  He clearly wanted Juliana to stop pestering him with her requests for today.

  “Of course,” Juliana replied but then nodded to me. “Hence, why I have brought Alex with me. Would you kindly hear him out?”

  The Beastkin directed his attention to me, and I took a deep breath, stalling as I tried to come up with what to say.

  Clarissa’s sly grin showed that she expected me to win him over, but how I would get him to that point was still a mystery to me.

  “Ah, Alex,” Grotsanik said, nodding slightly. “We have not spoken at length since the attack. Have you come to echo Lady Tasberg’s requests?”

  Clearly the Beastkin knew what was up already, despite Clarissa’s insistence I could sway him to help us.

  Great.

  “Well,” I said, scratching the back of my neck in thought. An idea had come to mind. “Not exactly. I was just wondering if there were any other ways back to Tringall that you know of. I don’t suppose there are other tunnels that lead in that direction?”