This Ascent to Divinity is Lewder than Expected (A Futa LitRPG)

3.13 Procuring a Tutor

"So," Delta said. "I've got a business proposal for you."

Maddy had leaned her staff against the wall and sat at on one of the Oasis's benches, next to Delta. She basked in the mana regeneration effect, looking less fatigued by the second. Her hat was also off, now, with her bright blue hair on full display. It was short, straight, and well-maintained, unruffled by the hat she'd been wearing. It went down to her shoulders. She had warm gray eyes. Paired with her hair, and build, she'd always been a distinctive-looking girl.

"Business proposal?" Maddy asked, amused. "You're trying to put a team together. No need to phrase it like that."

"Well. Kind of. Like I said, it's complicated. The team part is only a maybe." Delta shook her head. "We'll get there. First, an actual business proposal, not a team invite. That squad I joined—one of them is a mage."

Maddy blinked. "Okay. What role?"

"Aegis?" Delta wrinkled her nose. "Actually, as the dynamic stands, she's more of a booster. But she has the potential to be an aegis. Her support skills are innate, so she has no problem getting those out, but her spellcasting abilities, the ones linked to her arcana rune, are ... lacking."

"Okay ... ?" Maddy said. She didn't see where Delta was going with this.

"We're looking for a teacher. Someone we can trust. Who has a bit of discretion. Er, a whole heaping of discretion."

"A whole heaping?"

"It's weird. A bit of an explanation." Delta chewed her lip, looking around the Oasis. There were plenty of other mages seated on nearby benches, recovering from their mana expenditures. "Hey, can you do that thing with the sound bubble?"

"Uh. Sure?"

She traced her finger in the air, imprinting a fist-sized arcane diagram of complex white lines in the air. A second later, it fizzled, and all outside noises disappeared. Nobody could hear what they were saying, now.

"Man. That's seriously so useful."

"It better be! Took me weeks to learn. It's a tricky one." Maddy tilted her head, waiting expectantly.

Delta wasn't embarrassed about explaining Zoey's class to Maddy, but she did think it deserved a segue of sorts. Though, launching straight into it would be pretty funny ... Delta fought away the impulse to do so. Much as Maddy's reaction would be more amusing that way, Delta needed to be a professional. Which she could do, when the situation called for it.

If, admittedly, only through great effort.

"What's the weirdest class you've ever heard of?" Delta asked.

Maddy blinked, adjusting to the swerve in topic. "Huh. That's a good question." Her brow furrowed down as she puzzled over it. "Oh! Mom told me about a guy who called himself a 'devourer'."

"Eh?"

"Got stronger the more he ate! Was like, four hundred pounds, Mom said. Ate monsters, even, from the various shards he worked through. That's a pretty weird class."

No kidding. He ate monsters? "That's real?"

"I mean ... I think so? Mom met him, apparently, back when she still wayfared. But she could've just been making it up." Maddy shrugged. "But you asked for weird classes. Most of those are made up, I'd figure. Heck, most of everything feels made up, sometimes."

"Most of everything?" Delta was letting herself get distracted, but talking to Maddy was always interesting; she was constantly saying stuff that had Delta's head tilting. Probably what growing up with in a reclusive family of mages did. "What'd'you mean?"