"I'm jealous," I say while handing Yue's Status Plate to her.
The little lady takes it with both hands and smiles with just her eyes, and I find myself smiling back at the joy in those jeweled orbs.
After the first baptism of the latest batch of monster meat, I regained enough responsiveness to calm the frightened vampire down and wipe away her tears, even though they seemed unending.
The notion of my death had alarmed her greatly, and it didn't take me long to see why.
After being trapped with nothing but her own thoughts and darkness for so long, my presence here in her life could be likened to a sudden light at the end of a tunnel that in her mind, had no end.
For her to lose that single source of light after three hundred years of nothing but despair right after it came and set her free? It was a miracle she didn't break down completely.
I suspected her innate regeneration had a hand in it, after all, it did keep her sane and alive for centuries.
With both our indecencies covered by pristine white pelts, we sat facing each other, she on her knees and me with mine hugged close to my chest.
Moved by her haggard visage and slightly sunken cheekbones (her eyes obviously helped) I brought my hand to her face and cradled her cheek gently, running my thumb beneath her damp eyelids.
She shivered and shut her eyes, leaning into my touch and lowering her arms to the pelt below us.
"Don't worry about anything. Your days of being alone are over."
She reopened her eyes and her shaking crimson orbs met mine. "Does that mean… you're going to take me with you?"
For a moment I was confused, but since she was right here I went ahead and asked. "Wait… do you think I was going to leave you here?"
She nodded, saying in a faint, almost parched tone. "Mmm… you had no reason to save me but you did anyway. I didn't think you'd want the extra baggage."
Thoughts flooded my mind, many about her plight, how she was not baggage, how leaving her to fend for herself was utterly wrong, and how I wasn't a scumbag, but I ignored all of them.
Such superfluous words might have been suitable for other situations.
This wasn't one of them… to me at least. The little queen was by no means fragile. I had no doubt she'd be able to pick herself back up even if I somehow ended up abandoning her.
Now that she was at her lowest though, certainty… I felt, was what she needed the most.
My grip around her small face tightened just a fraction, our eyes boring into one another with heightened intensity. "I want you to come with me. Will you?"
The expectation shone in her eyes like stars. "... Is it really okay?"
I ran my thumb over her check affectionately and gave her a single nod. "Yes."
For the first time since our meeting and her unsealing, she shed the expressionless visage and put on a wide, joyful smile, blasting me with a bucketful of charm unbeffiting her juvenile visage.
She placed one hand over the one I had cradling her face and said, "Yes. I'll come with you."
Entranced by the sight before me, I nodded and returned a smile of my own, letting my excitement at having her with me bleed through unhindered.
We sat there for who knows how long and just stared at each other. At some point, she gained a light dusting of red on her cheeks and looked away, and I took that as a signal to let go.
The thought to change the terms of our binding vow came to mind. I wanted to prove to her how big a deal this change in her circumstances was, but I held off on it.
Perhaps when we had gone down a couple of more floors and bonded further then I'd spring this on her. The promise to take her with me would have to do… for now.
.
.
.
.
The speed at which I breezed through the floors was so high, even the addition of the barest equivalent of a magic goddess to my party made almost no difference. Almost.
A mere four days had passed, but were already on the 60th floor, ten floors down from where I met the ravenous princess nuzzling my shoulder and sniffing my neck like a cat.
Right after my body and cursed energy recovered to their new peaks days ago, I offered her a drink, knowing she hadn't fed for a ridiculously long time.
I expected an immense appetite, especially with the "soup" my blood had become with the various monster traits I'd assimilated. Reverse cursed energy was on standby to immediately replenish what was lost.
But boy had I miscalculated.
Frankly, I should've known when she leaned down to my offered wrist and paused to sniff it aggressively.
After she latched on with her tiny fangs and started sucking, she gripped my forearm with her tiny hands all of a sudden and upped the ante, refusing to let go.
She sucked like she hadn't in centuries, the gulping audible enough for me to feel a hint of fear.
Initially, I wasn't worried, not even when the minute mark passed. But when more of the sixty second intervals piled on, I called out to her, getting no answer as I pried her little hands away.
Her head obviously came next, but I met more difficulty there.
Even when I unhooked her fangs from my arm, she stuck her tongue out and lapped at my bare skin like it'd been coated with honey.
Calling out her name still didn't snap her out of whatever this was, so I left her alone and moved back to observe, noting how her absent eyes followed me around.
She came to her senses not long after, her gaze immediately settling on my wrist as her small throat gulped visibly. When I asked what happened, I didn't expect to get two answers.
Yummy: Not every guy's gonna look at you as a useless bit of fuckmeat. Sometimes they really do just want to bite down and tear a chunk off you. It's not your place to get in the way of their desire, the least you can do is make it all the more pleasant. Every part of you is delicious. A lick of your skin might be a sweet sugar or a lovely cinnamon, your soft meat juicy and tender to the taste. Even if your partner isn't out for dinner, you'll always smell welcoming and be all the more fun to kiss. And if they are, you'll find that the process of being prepared and devoured is a pleasure like nothing else.
Each of the abilities I'd discovered so far had clear purposes. This one was no different. Yet I couldn't for the life of me understand what whoever sent me here stood to gain by making me more palatable to the little queen.
I knew what I was and would be getting, and I wasn't complaining.
Yue had loosened up around me far quicker than I expected. The way to a woman's heart was through her stomach too it seemed.
Seemingly unsatisfied with that one drink, the tiny seductress had taken to using her wily charms to get me to offer my neck to her.
She kept her attempts subtle, like refusing to get off my back when we camped to rest or giving my neck and lower ear the occasional, spine tingling lick.
It didn't help when I gave her looks of playful reproach. She'd return them with one that regretted and denied nothing while she licked her lips in ways that got my blood moving.
This cat and mouse had gone on endlessly these past few days, and it seemed she'd grown tired of it.
While I knelt in a flower field and harvested the meat of a dinosaur-like monster into multiple clear jars, I felt the nuzzling stop and change into a familiar prickle, the expected drain following right after.
"Woman, we aren't done with this floor yet."
"Mm… just—"mwah "a little…" she said and raised her arm in a charging T-rex's direction. "Scarlet Spear."
A gout of red flame lit up a few inches from her palm and coalesced into a spear, a flicking gesture from her finger shooting it toward the grey skinned monster with a pink flower perched atop its head.
The tightly controlled spell pierced through its throat, going halfway through before coming apart in a spherical explosion of burned meat, flame, and heat.
Having gotten used to such reverent displays, I had my attention elsewhere, the envy I had to deal with reduced to a pang I could barely feel.
I ignored both the succubus and the rapidly growing rumble beneath my feet. I shut the magic compass and stored it, grabbing the dainty legs around my torso as waves of more T-rexes closed in on us.
Yue hadn't stopped attacking them, flame spears streaking through the air in blazing lines of red.
"Hold on," I said and crouched, pushing off the ground and escaping the encirclement in an instant. The wind whipped both of our hairs back as we took flight, prompting the vampire to tighten her arms around me.
She didn't stop sucking though.
As strong as I was, I couldn't actually fly. The force in my jump eventually ran out and gravity took over.
Yue, feeling the change immediately, stopped her feeding and looked down, extending her left arm in that direction before continuing her meal.
Wind responded to her will and pushed against us from below, slowing our fall and making what would've been a shower of rock and a crater into a loud and heavy thud.
A quick check of the compass and a few more jumps later, we arrived at our destination, a triangular rocky opening that reminded me of a sacred part of the human female anatomy.
I shook my head and glanced over my left shoulder to the one responsible for this. She kept her fangs where they were and opened her eyes to meet mine, her expression one of innocence.
"Stay sharp," I said and looked back at the entrance, advancing into it at a moderate and measured pace.
It was a tight fit but we both made it through, a wide carven with a high ceiling raining light from the green glowstones embedded in it opening itself to us.
Scanning the various cracks that lined the wall at various points, I held my arm out and grabbed the long hilt of the darksword, pulling it out of storage.
Yue to her benefit sensed the severity of my actions and mimicked it, dropping down from my back and placing hers flat against mine.
A few moments after she did, multiple green balls the size of ping pongs emerged from one of the cracks and floated in our direction.
In one smooth movement executed with a considerable amount of speed, I tossed the sword lightly, caught in a reverse grip, and flung it like a spear into the crack.
I ignored the distant crack and what had to be a screech and looked over my shoulder. "Remember what we talked about? About shaping pure mana into things? Create a dome big enough to contain both of us. Don't let the balls get through."
"Mmm…" Yue responded with her characteristic murmur and got to work.
Less than a moment later, a faint gold radiance encircled me from all sides and took the form of a translucent barrier. The first ping pong arrived a few seconds later and hit the near invisible pane, exploding into a cloud of green gas.
The site of the collision trembled but did not break.
More of the green balls arrived and detonated at various points on the barrier, none of them breaking through.
Smiling, I turned and met the magical prodigy's prideful yet expectant gaze, nodding to show her how impressed I was. "Awesome work," I smiled, asking, "any problems using mana this way?"
She shook her head. "No. It's like casting a spell but… opposite."
"I see… Instead of conjuring the element you want and then shaping it, you're skipping things straight to the shaping stage."
"Yes," she said with a smile and lowered her arms, the barrier melting away with her action. She clearly enjoyed the interest I had in her abilities and the thoughts and ideas I'd been floating over to her.
There was plenty more where that came from, but it had to wait.
"I'm going to get the sword," I said and crossed the cavern, the space completely devoid of the mind control spores. "Wait here."
I found it easily enough, the greatsword stuck halfway into a wall of solid grey rock. The visible part of the blade up to the hilt was coated in dripping green sludge that smelled strongly of grass and leaves.
As I contemplated the annoying job that was going to be cleaning it, a series of small impacts hit my body and clouds of dirty green obscured my vision.
Having lured my prey from hiding, I wasted no time and stepped out of the spore cloud, grabbing and pulling away the wilted brown flower that hung loosely in my sight.
[spoiler=Purity Within]
Purity Within: An assassin must undergo annual brainwashing sessions to reinforce their absolute loyalty. But you certainly didn't start Jumping just to end up somebody else's mind-controlled puppet, so by taking this perk rest assured that you are immunized against this and all other forms of brainwashing and mind control. Also, for the duration of this jump your superiors will fail to notice that you're not actually brainwashed unless you actually disobey a direct order where they can see it.
[/spoiler]
Kneeling behind a large rock stained with its green blood, a monster with skin of the same shade that highlighted its buxom, feminine figure gawked at its failed attempt to control me.
Its large purple eyes, webbed maw, and overall nightmare-inducing visage even a mother wouldn't love would be forever stuck in shock as I appeared behind it in a flash, reinforced hunting knife in hand and a thin line on its neck.
Fighting and winning a war with errant thoughts in my own mind, I harvested what I could from the monster, retrieved my sword and left the place, all the while wondering why someone would design a monster in such a way.
I blamed Yue.
She'd been riling me up little by little, and while I could easily ignore my growing lust like any other man who didn't live life going wherever his penis pointed, I didn't want to.
As much as she looked the way she did, Yue's demeanor, mannerisms, and even the way she talked befitted a woman her actual age and former station as a ruler. I simply couldn't see her any other way.
When I thought of the features that drew me in and made me want to do …things to her, her eyes (obviously) and the little little methods she employed to get a rise out of me came to mind.
Her physicality wasn't at all a factor, and I suspected it was the same for her. Nonetheless, those suspicions would have to be confirmed on a later date.
After returning to the cavern and setting up camp, Yue, as always, joined me on the large bear pelt. I put away the magic compass and focused on her.
"We're done with this floor. That plant queen thing was the one controlling the dinosaurs. She was the boss here. The rest were just her puppets."
Yue had a questioning look. "Dino…saurs?"
I raised my eyebrows in understanding. "Yeah… they are creatures that existed on my world millions of years ago. They're all extinct now. You must've learnt world history as a queen right? Did you have something similar here?"
She thought about it and shook her head. "I don't think so. The only creatures I can remember going extinct are the dragonmen. They actually looked like these… dinosaurs, but they weren't mindless."
"Dragonmen…"
"Yes. Noble creatures who could take the form of humans and dragons. They were a well respected and intelligent race, but for an unknown reason their entire species were branded heretics and wiped out."
The subject of heretics and the matter of mind control swimming around in my mind, I nodded at Yue's history lesson and thought about Ehit and what would happen should he catch wind of her existence.
As a firm believer in Murphy's third law, I didn't waste time trying to improve and perfect any plans to avoid the god. Because he was exactly that… a god.
What I and Yue needed was power. Power to overcome any bullshit thrown our way and eventually the big ugly g himself. To that end, I—
"Rick… Rick? Can you hear me?" Yue's smooth voice that had gone up a slight octave snapped me back to reality.
My head snapped over to her and I said, "Sorry. I was just thinking about something."
"Mmm… can you tell me?"
"I want to make you more powerful," I said, catching multiple sealed jars that fell from a familiar portal suspended in midair.
She scanned the jars and their contents before settling her curious gaze back on me. "You want me to eat the monster meat too."
"Yes, and I have a plan for how it might work, even with your regeneration."
"...Why?" she asked, her voice dropping a noticeable octave. "Am I not go—"
"You're perfect," I interrupt whatever wrong misinterpretation of events her mind has come up with. "This is not because you're weak. You're strong, crazy strong. But I think you can be stronger."
I set a jar down with a dull clink and gently grab her hands. "I don't have mana, so the benefits I get from the meat is limited. You though… you stand to gain a lot. You'll gain a strong body, like mine, making anyone who tries to get close because," I say the next part while making air quotes, "you're weak in close combat, regret it painfully. It will also boost your mana. The most important benefit though will be the new spells. You've seen the magic the monsters use. You'll be able to use them too."
"I'll do it," Yue said all of a sudden, staring at me rapt attention and eyes conveying agreement. She actually expressed it at the "you're perfect," but I just wanted to outline the possible benefits.
Carefully checking each jar around me, I looked away from her for a moment. When I brought my gaze back, the wolf pelt covering her was nowhere to be found and she stood before me completely nude.
"You don't need to strip."
"I want to. I want you to look."
My eyes travelled a quick path down her chest, pubic area, and legs before rebounding back to her face like a bowstring. Shruggin, I opened the jar and gestured to the space in front of me. "Sit down with your back to me."
The aroma of cooked meat mixed with the air in our vicinity and a pair of thin, fair legs entered my sight. My gaze travelled up, catching sight of a forbidden fruit before eventually settling on a highly amused and unrepentant face.
Unwilling to indulge or give her the satisfaction, I simply smiled and offered her a piece of the rabbit from the first floor, having killed another before leaving.
She opened wide and swallowed it, grabbing my hand and wrapping her small lips around the fingers as she licked them clean. It took a good deal of my control to stop my eyes from widening.
'Woman, do you think you're more freaky than I am?' I wanted to say, but I kept mum and let her finish.
Once she grew satisfied with the mouth polishing, I pulled back and screwed the jar shut, resisting the urge to stick the saliva coated digits in my own mouth.
"Listen now. This is the most important part. Activate your pain dampening and regeneration control skills. Don't let your normal healing interfere with the process. Leave it all to me. Okay?"
She nodded, shivering right after as the flat of my palm pressed against her bare chest and caught both of her small breasts in its radius.
It was my turn to smile when she shot me a glare of mock offense.
Reverse cursed energy flowed into her as a pair of hardening nubs pushed futilely against my palm.
Still not willing to give her any satisfaction, we sat there in a silent war of gazes and subtle actions—mostly on her part, to get some kind of rise out of each other.
A few minutes passed and I saw the first sign of the promised transformation.
Her skin rippled beneath my touch, not like that of the sea, but in a manner I could only ascribe to soft velcro. All over her body and even her face, her skin bubbled up in a grotesque way.
The cursed energy in her body responded and did what it was best known for, healing the uncountable number of lethal injuries left behind by the crude genetic restructuring.
In a manner that matched my experience, the bubbles would pop up, shift around underneath her skin and just stop, only to start over again after a few seconds.
It looked and felt absolutely horrid, but I didn't let that distract me, the changes being wrought clearly evident.
Slowly but surely, Yue's stature increased with every cycle, my palm no longer registering her nipples.
She kept mum the entire time, her eyes locked squarely with mine, even during the times they experienced the same thing her body did.
The transformation came to an end soon enough.
After more than a minute of nothing happening, I pulled back my arm and Yue awoke from the trance she'd entered a moment ago.
Her near waist length hair had turned a pure white like mine, and she'd gained visible blood vessels just like I did, hers pulsing with a honeyed gold unlike the red of the monsters.
She flashed me a smile which I returned before retrieving and passing her Status Plate over
She took a good long at it before handing it back to me.
I read through everything with my enhanced speed and raised my head back up, an even wider smile on my face.
Yue didn't meet my gaze, her expression one of contemplation as she looked elsewhere.
She stood up all of a sudden, giving me a full display of just how drastic the changes she'd undergone were compared to my nearly inexistent ones after I ate the meat.
She'd grown several inches taller and wider. Her arms reminded me of fighters and women in the military but a bit larger and more defined, the same going for her lower body.
Thicker but not overly so thighs, visible abs in her midsection, and just above them, boobs that were triple the size of her previous ones.
She looked like an extremely shrunken down version of She-Hulk, and boy did that mental image do things to me. Still though, my self-control didn't waver, something that was helped by what she did next.
Nude as the day she was born, the transformed vampire queen held out a hand and a glob of mana reminiscent of light-colored honey manifested above it.
The seconds ticked by as she worked it into a shape, one I recognised as soon as she finished. She grabbed the dirt gold disk and tried to bend it, her newly enhanced strength failing but not deterring her.
She held the disk with a single hand and flung it, the construct cutting a golden line until it struck the cavern wall and exploded in a shower of light, wind, and rocks.
She turned to me, a proud smile on her face, one I returned in full force.
"Was that Air Dance?"
She nodded. "Yes. When I tried to activate it, I suddenly… knew how to cast it in spell form."
Ohhh boy.
I rushed to my feet, stepped forward and cradled her face with both hands, beating back every urge to kiss her stupid. "Yue, you magnificent little princess. We are going to do great things together."
She smiled sweetly and closed her eyes, leaning into my hands and covering them with her own.
.
.
.
.
The journey into the depths resumed, this time at a slightly slower pace.
There was a huge backlog of monster meat for Yue to go through and fresh spell ideas to experiment and work with. Our camping stops were more frequent as a result.
It was a joy to watch her work, the gears in her brain turning non-stop in a bid to make the new abilities her own and as effective and powerful as they could be.
Two weeks of this passed and we finally made it to the 99th floor. Our teamwork and abilities being overkill, we cleared it in less than an hour and Yue looked to me for our next step.
I whipped out the compass and determined this floor's exit before saying, "Let's check out the last floor."
She nodded and jumped onto my back, her almost doubled weight still nothing to me. Instead of jumping, I took off in a sprint that saw the world blur.
After almost a minute, the world regained its normal stillness as we arrived at a staircase and I followed it down, eventually ending up in a gigantic, well lit space.
Supporting the equally massive ceiling were columns of pillars even spaced out across the length of the room.
"…Beautiful," Yue muttered, eliciting an agreeing nod from me.
Satisfied with the sight and uneager to fight the boss monster just yet, I turned around and went back the way we came.
"Rick?"
"Don't worry. I'll explain when we settle down."
We returned to the 99th floor and set up camp behind a raised barrier. A fire was quickly lit and the magic pot set above it, multiple jars of monster meat—both old and fresh—coming out of storage.
You sat across from me as always and peered at me with a waiting expression. I set the last jar down and matched her gaze. "We're going to stay here and digest the gains from the recent floors. You also need to finish the last of the old meat and finalize your new spells. We're strong, but I want us to be at our best when we confront the final boss monster. What do you think?"
She shook her head. "It doesn't matter," she smiled, saying, "I trust you. That's enough for me."
Her smile morphed into surprise when I leaned forward and stole her lips.