Consciousness slowly returned to Lilly accompanied by the delightful scent of roasting meat. Slowly stretching her limbs and letting out a groaning moan she muttered to herself. "That was a damn good dream!"
A new voice reached Lillys ears. "Well I hope it wasn't a dream because I really enjoyed myself last night!" I jerked up at that voice and slowly turned on the direction the voice came from as my memories of the previous day and in particular the night came back into the forefront of her mind. "Didn't expect you to pass out after one go though." Kana mentioned seeming offhandedly whilst giving a delighted grin. "Guess I haven't lost my touch after all!" At that final comment my face bursts in a flush and I grab the nearest thing I can find and throw it at her. Unfortunately for me that closest thing was just some moss that sailed harmlessly past her.
It was also at this point that I looked down and realised that my flower dress had deactivated whilst I slept causing even greater embarrassment as quickly turned around and recast the spell. "Yeah I didn't expect your dress to just dissipate like that once you fell asleep was quite hard to not do more to you when you were so vulnerable but I managed to hold off." A myriad of emotions flickered through my head at that latest statement, from annoyance that my image skill turns off when I'm sleeping or unconscious, to embarrassment from some of the things I said last night, delight at how I was handled, more embarrassment at letting that side of me slip out so easily and finally acceptance tog the fact the cat is out of the proverbial bag.
Sigh.. "well." I start saying not really knowing where I'm about to go with it as I turn back around. "It's been a while since I had a chance to.. cut loose like that. Soo, umm sorry not sorry?" I awkwardly end with a chuckle. I'm met with a somewhat deadpan expression from Kana which slowly breaks into a laugh which I join in with. This thankfully shattered any of the lingering tension that was in the air.
"Well I'm glad you could cut loose, but I think I'll be sure to make sure I get some release too before you pass out again." Kana notes with a grin.
Rolling my eyes at her playfully I poke back with. "Oh and your so sure that it will happen again are you?" I watch as my words seem to sink in as she pauses, furrows her brows in concentration, pauses again and starts to open her mouth in reply but I beat her too it with a giggle. "I'm joking don't worry, I think I'd be more than happy to do so again. But I just want to let you know that I'm not always so.. passive. Especially when it come to non sex related things!" I end with a purposefully playful tone. "I enjoy cutting loose but quite prefer to take charge of my life in most other aspects. Just want to make that be know in advance."
This was a lesson I learnt the hard way when an ex though that me being submissive in the bedroom meant they they could boss me around in the rest of my life. Shuddering at the memory of how that one ended in quite the curfuffle I was in no mood to repeat that.
Kana nodded in understanding her demeanour moving into a more serious mode. "I get that in fact I think I'm kinda the opposite, more passive day to day but when it comes to." She coughs slightly awkwardly. "Nighttime activities my succubus nature comes to the forefront and that leans me more to the dominant style of play." She states whilst her voice got progressively weaker the further along she went. Seeing the shy cute girl I got to know yesterday come back in full force I couldn't help but giggle and make my way over to give her a hug pulling her head down into my chest.
"Aww I almost forgot how utterly adorable shy Kana is!" I happy exclaim. Seeing her conflicted yet somewhat happy gaze as she peered up from between my cleavage I took pity on her and let her go with a laugh. Settling myself down next to her I look over at what she has cooking over the fire. "So whatcha cooking?also did you go hunting before I woke up?" I ask with interest.
Gathering her thought Kana also settled herself down and glanced at the cooking food before answering. "Yeah it was luck really, went to the stream to get a drink when I woke up and stumbled across a Jabberfinch taking a bath, thankfully I had my bow with me so managed to catch it!" She explained with a hint of pride showing through.
"What's a Jabberfinch?" I ask showing obvious confusion on my face.
"Their a decently sized bird type monster native to these woods, come up to knee height when fully grown." She explains. "And as a plus they taste great!" She finishes off. Realising she said monster I almost ask if they are real but stop myself realising that would be an extremely weird question to ask for someone native to this world, so instead I just hum in affermation whilst mentally checkin my lore knowledge for more details on monsters.
Turns out there isn't much that I know about them past the fact that they are very real and also distinct from animals with the main differences being that monsters utilise mana to grow in strength and usually to grow larger from their more mundane animal cousins. They can also in some rare cases develop magic adjacent skills and abilities.
By the time iv finished going over this Kana is taking the monster meat skewers out of the fire and handing one over to me. I give my thanks and tentatively take a bite only for my eyes to widen as the succulent taste registers in my mind causing me to happily chow down on the rest of it. Thankfully I am still somewhat satiated from last night so I don't need to have seconds before I'm feeling nicely full.
Once we have both eaten out fill and cleaned up at the stream we head out for the day. Kana once more taking the lead with me occasionally taking a moment to admire her tonned but and swishing tail.
As the morning turns into afternoon I am quite surprised when I get a unexpected notification from the system.
[New Quest Available
You are passing by a newly formed dungeon, dare you risk its depths for the chance of its riches?
Reward - 1 magical item of copper rank or higher with the chance of an addition boon from your patron depending on outcome]
The supprise of seeing the notification causes me to let out a noise of supprise which results in Kana turning around and asking if I'm alright? " umm yeah sorry I'm ok I just got surprised when I got a quest offered to me."
Thankfully I knew that all inhabitants of this world had a system and quests were sometimes but often very rarely given out under exceptional conditions. It seems that my entire existence is exceptional as I have received multiple quests in the past 24 hours.
Kana gasps in supprise before exclaiming. "You got offered a quest! No way what is it?" She pauses for a moment then quickly adding. "Umm you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." In a slightly timmed tone.
Not minding sharing at all I gladly explain what my quest is to Kana and watch as her expression changes from excitement t to worry and back to a more tempered excitement. "Hmm a newly formed dungeon, it shouldn't be above copper rank if that's the case but still it could be really dangerous, actually speaking of what rank are you? I'm mid way through copper myself."
Now I had an understanding of what she meant by rank as it turns out this world or system categorised people in a few different ranks depending on what stage your aspects are. The aspects are Mind, Body and Soul.you had to advance each of these aspects to the next rank before you could 'rank up'. The ranks are split from Mortal, which is basically unranked mundane people, to Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, Azure and finally Diamond.
Now given that my stats were currently still locked I was in a bit of a pickle as the strength I displayed was definitely above mortal rank but I had no idea how to classify what my rank actually was. Thinking things over I sighed to myself and decided that I trusted Kana enough and it was also getting bothersome to keep up the facade so I decided to just bite the bullet and explain my situation to her.
"Soo here's the thing." I awkwardly start. "I don't actually know what my rank is because my stats are currently locked as iv only been in this world for a little over a day." I hold my breath and cringe internally thinking of any number of bad reactions that could come from this.
Eventually Kana relaxes and slaps her forehead letting out a groan. "Of course your an outworlder that makes so much bloody sense." I'm momentarily stunned at that but my face contorts as she goes on. "I mean for a start your an elf which as basically extinct, you have no real explanation for how you got here, your ability to use nature magic which can only be used by monsters and some plant related Demi-Humans and you lack of some pretty basic things!" She finishes listing all of my peculiarities like she is ticking items off a list.
"Wait your just accepting this?!" I explain slightly incredulously. "Are outworlders such a common occurrence that it makes sense for me to be one?" I ask in genuine confusion.
"Well I wouldn't say they are exactly common but they ain't exactly rare either, I mean your the second one iv actually met. Granted the other is the local Duke so I cannt exactly say Iv met him but still, common enough that most people have heard of them." She explains. Well my mind is officially blown, here I was thinking that I'd have to keep this a secret but turns out people like me are a relatively common thing, who'da thunk?
"But getting back to you, can you explain some more of how you came here I don't know a whole lot but most outworlders tend to have memories of the life they lived before comming here." Lana asks.
Thinking nothing wrong with that I nod before looking around and say. "Yeah I can definitely do so but let's find somewhere to have some lunch it's a bit of a tale, almost 9 chapters worth at least!" Frowning at my choice of words Kana nevertheless agrees and we find a nice spot and whilst she sets up a small fire and pulls out the rest of the Jabberfinch meat from this morning I tell my tale. From the last moments of my life and getting killed by my deranged stalker to being given a choice on what kind of world I wanted to live in, all the way up to how I met up with her. "And that about sums it up really, I died got given an opportunity for a new life and decided to go at it as an elf!" I'd been talking for almost half an hour at this point and answering any questions that Kana had along the way.
Not going to lie it felt good to open up about it, granted it had only been a day since I got here and even less since I first met Kana but I don't think iv ever gotten along with someone quite as well or quite as quickly as I have with her. So I was really not enjoying deceiving her like I was.
After processing my explanation for a while Kana nods to herself before slapping her knees as she stands up saying. "Well my pretty little elf it would seem that we have a dungeon to investigate! Don't want you to fall out of favour with the system by refusing one of its quests now do we?"
As I was standing up I staggered at the ending of her statement asking in an incredulous tone. "Wait is that a thing!? Can the system stop liking me!? Does it even like me in the first place!!?" My only answer was Kana laugh as she turned on her heel and walked off into the woods leaving me standing there like a fool. "Well crud."
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So let me know if you have any ideas for what kind of boon you think Lilly should get out of this quest, iv got some ideas but always open for more!