"Well, what are you waiting for? Get these things off!" The older adventuress shouted at Rennia and Maeve, who stared at the obscene scene in front of them. The vines had wrapped all over her body, coiling around each body part like a snake. If there was ever a time to have lewd thoughts, this might not have been one of them. That didn't stop Rennia from staring at the spectacle before her.
This strange woman had pinkish-purple hair, with ram-like horns that coiled around her forehead. She was very clearly a "wildborn," but her racial aptitudes had nothing to do with what Rennia was interested in. Massive sagging breasts and thighs bigger than her whole head.
One particular vine was positioned between her legs, moving up and down, almost rhythmically near her crotch, pressing and grinding with deliberate pressure. The sensitivity must have been intense, as she kept rubbing her legs together, her breath coming in shallow gasps.
Rennia eyed Maeve, who was blushing slightly. They stared at each other briefly, neither making a move. Maeve started fuming when Rennia wouldn't stop glancing at her.
"Well, don't look at me—do something! I don't want to touch those vines," Maeve exclaimed.
Rennia shrugged, then walked closer to analyze the situation with a better eye.
It was hard not to stare. Especially since the whole scene seemed frozen in time. Speaking of the cold and the warmth—Rennia had been rock solid, barely covering her erection from the panicking adventuress. If she was worried about being caught, she didn't show it. Seeing the woman squirm as the vines trailed toward her mouth, wrapping around her throat in a slow, teasing coil, made Rennia want to partake in the affair.
Nope, she told herself. Bad idea. Monsters could be lethal.
"Hey!" The adventuress called out to Rennia, pleading for her help. "Are you just going to stand there? Please get me down, right now. I've been here for hours."
She suppressed the sigh of disappointment that came out of her mouth. She wouldn't have minded seeing the full scene play out—watching those thick vines slide across slick skin, watching the woman's body arch and writhe—
Rennia brought her sword out and struck at the vines. One by one they came down, falling to the ground. The adventuress collapsed, her bare body shivering. She wrapped her arms around her massive chest, and her teeth started chattering. Rennia extended herself in hopes of picking her up after the ordeal.
"Rennia, watch out!" Maeve shouted from behind her. An aggressive vine ripped itself out of the ground and wrapped around the woman's neck. The woman's face turned bright blue, and her body started trembling.
A flame spell projected itself in her direction. The vine that held her let loose as it was set on fire, causing the woman to collapse to the ground. But it wasn't done—Rennia slashed at the retreating thing, cutting off another limb from whatever system controlled them. Likely the remnant of some dungeon or the spirit's control.
Maeve helped the woman to her feet, reluctantly. The slimish residue stuck to her hands and she was looking at Rennia like it was her fault. Then she held out her grimoire and started casting a healing spell.
"Threads of life, unbind the harm,
Weave together—mend and warm. [Heal]"
Glowing lights surrounded the pink-haired wildborn. The lashes on her skin disappeared, and in a few seconds she was on her feet. She held out her arms, then spat on the ground, nearly vomiting.
Maeve jumped away. "Really!"
"Sorry, sorry. I've been sucking on that thing for a while. Bigger than most cocks." She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, a thin line of fluid still connecting her lips to her fingers.
Rennia gulped. She wondered what that felt like but was too afraid to ask. God, she was so horny today—was it the spirit's doing? Maeve gave the lady an incredulous stare, then whispered to Rennia, "She's clearly lost her mind. She's being delirious. We should escort her back halfway."
The wildborn got really pissed and cocked her head like she was about to ram Maeve. "I am not delirious! It's the whole environment—it's the spirit's doing. It's like dungeon miasma. Makes you wanna fuck."
She held out her hand on instinct. "Call me Fyrne. I got trapped here after I confronted that spirit inside. Who are you two?" she asked curiously. "What are you doing on this degenerate mountain?"
They made another glance at each other, disagreeing as they always did. Here again, the question of adventuring ethics came into play. They were mercenaries that dealt with monster problems—telling everything undermined their worth. But as always, Rennia believed they had to have an honor system.
"Name's Rennia. This is my partner, Maeve. I won't ask what happened here explicitly, but if you have some life-altering information for me, I'd appreciate it."
"There's not much to say. I barely got inside the cavern. The spirit inside, it's—"
Fyrne choked on her words in a way that irritated Rennia. She didn't want to stand here all day. "It seduces you?"
"Seduce?" Maeve asked. "Can you tell us any more than that? Weaknesses? Magic it uses?"
She shook her head. "It's pretty much all I know. I'm dumb as shit. Unless you want to hear of my, um... 'intimate' encounter, I told my party to bail, but it's been like a few hours. I don't know where they are. They were supposed to stock up—our weapons got nabbed by the vines."
Rennia felt disturbed. She couldn't care about her encounter, not right now. But she hadn't seen a party hiking up here. She didn't want to deal with death this early into her Ivarcant record—that would set a bad precedent if dead bodies ended up in her first evaluational report. The other thing that bothered her was multiple people in multiple zones. That was an occupational hazard. Too many adventurers on one job and you'd have a dispute over coin. She hoped they'd left the mountain base. She would bring it up to Mara or her boss when she got a chance. This was bad work guidelines.
"Can you make it down on your own? We're going into the cavern," Rennia said, her face stoic. Business was at stake here.
Fyrne looked surprised, as did Maeve—as if Maeve hadn't begged her to come along. "Just you two? I doubt you can deal with the problem on your own. If you give me an hour, I'd gladly join you. Besides, we bronze-rankers have to stick together."
"I'm sorry if this sounds rude, crass, and overly pragmatic, but no. We're getting paid a finite amount and I'm not splitting." It was pure business logic. She couldn't. "Besides, we need this for a rank-up."
Fyrne's face dropped. "Rank-up? Ridiculous. You're not bronze-ranked? Copper then—that just makes it worse."
Maeve broke the ice. "We're tin-rank. Not much to say."
Fyrne made a gagging sound, as if the gooey residue was still stuck in her throat. "You tinnies are nuts! As a senior adventurer, I can't allow that. You should retreat straight away. This is a bad job. You can't deal with it on your own—"
"We're above the 10th level, and I'm not new." That had been a lie, back when Rennia had been a hayseed jack. Yes, she had been level 11, but she'd had a reclass by a divine "blessing," and she didn't exactly want everyone to know.
"We're foreigners, new to the Ivarie superregion. We joined the guild for reasons of our own," Maeve stated.
"Aren't guild transfers supposed to carry over rank?"
Rennia crossed her arms. "Really none of your business."
The woman's face looked somber, mildly depressed. "So I came here for nothing then. My team bailed, and you're probably around a similar level." She breathed out a sigh. "Ahh, I need new clothes."
Being a Samaritan was one of the worst possible things you could do. And Rennia knew she was going to regret it horribly one day. Horribly. She dug in her backpack and threw a pouch at the woman. "Here. Ten gold coins. Should be enough to cover expenses back to Ivarcant. I'm sorry about this, it's just—"
"Life," Fyrne finished. Maeve looked stressed out.
Then she pounced like a jackal, and her hands started yanking Rennia to and fro. The tonal pressure of her voice changed. "Listen to me. It uses mind magic to cast illusions. It made me cum three times before my party split." She looked around haphazardly. "I don't think it's malevolent, but it's going to be a problem. I don't think you can handle it, honestly. Please just leave with me."
She was close—so close to Rennia's cock that it was nearly impossible to hide. She couldn't help the fact that Fyrne coming at Rennia like a lunatic was kind of hot. Fyrne had noticed the anomaly below her clothes, and Rennia pushed her away.
"What's that!" she asked.
"A wand I keep concealed. Now get lost already!"
The woman started chewing on her lips, then stood up.
"Bleh. Keep your secrets, Rennia, huh? I guess I'll see you in Ivarcant—or in the next printed paper. If you do make it out, find me at the Married Mermaid. I'll pay you back."
Married mermaid, she's never been to any place by that name.
Rennia turned. "I guess I'll keep that in mind."
The woman started walking, then stopped, stressing out Maeve, who turned away from her.
"Are you just going to let me walk back half-naked to that town?" she gestered with her thumb. "that town?"
Rennia threw her hands up. "Oh my god." She threw down her backpack, took a coat out, and threw it at the needy stranger. "Mara, Ivarcant guild receptionist—give it to her. Wash it before you give it back. I mean that with zero offense."
"None taken," Fyrne nodded, but stared at Rennia. It was Maeve who spoke next, the fury in her hands catching Rennia off guard.
"Will you just get lost so we can finish this and go home! You lost the economic opportunity, you dirty peasant. Let the professionals clean up."
Fyrne seemed to have found it amusing but said very little. "Well, at least one of you has manners." She started walking slowly. "See you in Ivarcant, I guess, tinnies."
"Cheers."
As she walked away, Rennia took a good long look at her ass. Her panties had holes in them—four, to be precise—and they'd been needlessly stretched, the fabric torn and stained. What was odd was that while her gear was missing, she'd never heard of non-sentient monsters stealing weapons and gear. She assumed her party must have come back for it and left her here, but she'd keep an eye out. Any further action on Rennia's part would be a whole debate on see-and-touch, so she turned toward the cave, and Maeve followed.