Aetuornos Beta 1-9

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1-9: Unexpected Rewards

On top of the drops from the bosses themselves, The passage that the demon general seemed to have come from had a few treasure chests in it, all lying half-open. Actually, one of them was fully open and appeared to be mostly empty. Scylla rushed to that one to lean over the top and look inside. "Huh, what's with this?" She reached in and pulled out a scroll. "'For the clever little mage'..uh, I can't read the rest of this."

"That's a spell! Gimme," Ara grabbed for it; her friend could probably have pulled it up out of reach or held on for a tug-of-war, but let her take it and scan through it instead. "Magnetism...this is someone else's custom spell. Iella's?"
"That wouldn't make any sense, if she's supposed to be our enemy," Jesse said. "Yet it does seem addressed to you."
"Yeah, and it was your idea that hit 'er," said the fox-girl.

"But she teleported out. Unless she went here, swapped this with the chest's original contents while we were busy, and then left," the mage reasoned aloud. "Still a little weird to do that. But...this seems like a pretty useful spell. I'm definitely learning it next time I meditate; maybe some other lightning-elemental stuff, too," she said, rolling up the scroll.

"So, do we need to worry about these being trapped?" the sheep-girl said, looking around at the rest of the treasure.

"Nah. This is dungeon-win rewards," Scylla said, waving a hand dismissively. "It's gotta be safe!"

"Ain't sporting otherwise," Kite agreed. "Still, I think you two oughta open 'em all first, just to be safe. I'll be over here in case you need any healin'," she said, stepping back to the entrance of the room. This caution proved unnecessary, however, and soon they were laying out loot to split it up once again.

The majority of it was more crafting materials, which were easy enough to split among them, but there were also some pieces of jewelry: Rings, bracelets, necklaces, some faintly glowing and some not. These were placed on top of the chest the spell had come from, now shut, until everything else was divided; then the samurai stood over it. "So...is this stuff enchanted oorrr...?"

"I'll identify," Ara said, stepping in. She sorted them into one pile of unenchanted jewelry and another of things she could feel magic from, then picked up each of the latter in turn to fully perceive its enchantment. "Thank goodness we don't have to expend scrolls or go back to town for this...let's see here."

"A ring of might...adds a small percentage boost to strength. Jesse?" she offered it toward the brawler.
"I'd rather know what everything is before making a selection."
"Understandable." The ring was set down again. "Ring of improved..archery. No good for any of us, but it could be traded or handed over if you party up with a bow-user. Necklace of dark-vision...hilarious, game," she deadpanned. "Collar of dog...this gives the wearer dog ears and a tail. Tiny bit useful, but mostly annoying, I think. Plus it's cursed, and won't come off without a temple or healer class's help."

"Aww, you'd look cute with puppy ears," Scylla said.

Aranthra just sighed. "And..bracelets of dust, a little unique. Clink them together and they shoot a cloud of dust out in front of you."

"Ooh, I want that one!" the wolf-girl said excitedly.

"Any objections?" No one spoke up. "Sold," she nodded, half-pretending to be an auctioneer.

"The strength ring does seem best for me," Jesse said.
"I'd like the archer ring," the fox-girl chimed in right after. "Bet I can find a way to make a tidy profit on it."
"Okay. Well, you or I should get the necklace," said the mage toward Jesse, who waved a hand back toward her to indicate she could keep it. "Right. And...that just leaves this collar."
"I vote you keep it!" Scylla said right away.
"Seconded," said the fox-girl.

"Seriously? I'm just gonna sell the stupid thing." She looked at Jesse, who just shrugged—not particularly wanting it either. "Okay then." The mage stuffed it in her inventory.

The rest of the jewelry was split up more or less evenly by value, except that Scylla grabbed a necklace she thought 'looked cute' and gave up a bit of her claim to the others for it. "Worth noting all this stuff can become enchanted," Ara remarked as everyone stowed their treasures away. "The more valuable the material, the higher the ceiling of enchants on it. So, think before you go selling it all."
"Understood," the brawler nodded.

After this, they continued down the passage a short way before finding a small raised stone pedestal with a glowing circle on it. "Hm..how convenient," Aranthra said, coming in. "If I channel some magic through this, it'll teleport whoever's standing on it back to the mouth of the cave. I guess, in theory, this was a quick way out for miners who got in deep, or if they got trapped or something...as long as one of them could channel magic, at least."

"Well, that's good," Jesse said, "It would be tedious to walk the entire way back out. And..I feel this session has been going for a while now. Not that it hasn't been fun; you're a fine party to work with."

"Aww, thanks," Scylla said, rubbing the back of her head, grinning and wagging her tail. Everyone got up onto the platform.

Aranthra placed her staff about in the center of the circle and closed her eyes, concentrating. The others saw a firelike glow surround the mage, flow into the staff and then down into the platform, followed by a bright flash—and then they were outside. "..Phew. I guess if I learn some fast-travel spells, they'll feel like that," she commented.

"Let's go!" the wolf-girl said cheerfully, pointing the way toward the town they'd visited before.

"Now...Kite."

"Huh?" The fox-girl turned toward Jesse.

"I left this discussion earlier, as there were far more important things going on..but how many of the charms you purchased, at our expense, are actually useful?"
"Okay, you got me. I just grabbed up anything that looked halfway interestin' to try it all out."
"I think that was a pretty good joke," Scylla said cheerfully. "We didn't have all that much money anyway, and it turned out the 'useless' stuff was really useful after all!"

Aranthra didn't say anything—possibly feeling supportive of her friend's opinion—soo the sheep-girl just shrugged, feeling outvoted. "Very well, then. Just promise you won't do something like that again."
"I dunno about that. I can swear to ya that if I do, it won't be your money, though."
"Fine."

"Hey, but speaking of charms—what was that one you put on your staff?" the mage said.

"Oh, it was 'overcast'. Super-powers the next spell channeled through whatever you stick it on. Also, it was..pretty expensive, so I only got the one," Kite said. "Shame I had to use it up, but she was comin' right at me. Well, I know what I want more of next time I get chance, anyway.

So, hey, do y'all trust me enough to share emails now, at least?" Kite asked.

"..Give me yours, and I will contact you later with mine," said the sheep-girl, deciding that she should probably set up a 'fake' account rather than give everyone her work address at the company's website.

"I don't mind saying mine!" Scylla said. "Ara and I are friends IRL, soo, I can pass anything along to her if you want."
"Yyeah..that's probably best." Among other considerations, the mage's email address included her real—and very male—name. Marcus, on the other hand, had a much more ambiguous email address built out of some random words followed by a few numbers. He'd used it for games and other online contacts for ages.

After exchanging emails, the wolf-girl said, "Hey, what do you guys do for a living? I own a gym!"

"You own a gym?" Jesse repeated as a question. Scylla didn't seem to her quite like the...focused sort who could handle the full load of running a business.

"Well, co-own. I do a lot of the front-end, customer relations stuff, and I work as a personal trainer for a lot of our members."
"Oh, I see." That made a lot more sense.

"Accountant," Aranthra said, "Nothing too impressive there. Pays pretty good, though."

"I am...retired," Jesse said a little too slowly. This was technically true, and even though Kite made it immediately obvious she didn't buy this as the full story, nobody seemed inclined to press for details when she seemed so hesitant to say this much. All the better for it, she thought.

"Ah, well, as for me," Kite said. "I'm a bit of a freelancer, doin' magic-tech integration work. Mostly computer hardware stuff, like installin' enchanted heat sinks, power sources, you name it."

"You see much business with that?" Ara said, genuinely curious.

"Oh, like you wouldn't believe! Like: Once I did work for this witch who wanted to use her smartphone as a spell focus, but the crystal was drainin' power like crazy all the time. I hacked together somethin' homebrew usin' voice recognition to listen for when she was castin' a spell and only power the crystal then, fixed it right up. Or: Some guy wanted his monitor to output actual 3D images, and I was able to rig up somethin' with light magic illusions for 'im? Not really any software that supports it, but he was happy to have the 'magic' part of it done and work on the rest himself. I'm tellin' ya, this is the next big thing in the tech industry. Someone who does work like I do is gonna be the next Bill Gates or somethin'...but probably not me. I ain't that lucky."

"Man, that actually sounds cool," the mage said. "Wish I'd taken some more CS classes instead of all math and finance."

"Well, hey, if I ever corporatize into a startup, I'll be sure to ask you for investments," Kite said, giggling.

After a brief pause, something occurred to the sheep-girl. "Would I be incorrect to assume your interest in this game has something to do with that?"
Kite shrugged. "Sure, to some extent. But hey, I'm pretty much addicted to hot tech and video games myself, even without that angle. Nobody with my hobbies and habits is gonna pass up an opportunity to play this!" she said, spreading her arms out and upward for a second.

"Have you had a look at how it's put together?"
"Well, sure. The panel ain't locked or nothin', so I had to at least take a peek. I didn't try to tamper with it, though," she said, shrugging.

"Well, what did you think of its construction?" Assuming—perhaps unwisely—that the fox-girl was telling the truth about her occupation and expertise, Jesse reasoned it was possible she might have some useful feedback in this area.

"Ehh, well. I'm a little annoyed at the casing, for the most part," the fox-girl said. "There's no way ya need that gigantic shell to house it. I'd rather just be able to put somethin' on and lie down where I'm comfy, instead'a pinching my tails under me in that ugly shell. It ain't exactly space-savvy for anyone who don't live in a mansion, either."

"Yyeah, we kinda had to cannibalize the big room I use for the old goggle-based VR," Ara said. "I get they wanted to sell the whole 'dive into another world' angle, but think I'd trade that thing for something convenient and wearable in a heartbeat."

"Hmm." Jesse nodded in vague agreement, after biting her tongue to keep herself from saying something like 'we'll look into that'. "So, you think the technology itself is working well enough?"

"Well, sure. I ain't enough of an expert on exactly how all this works to point out miniscule flaws from a little look," Kite said. "I'd have to do a teardown to get much of any info, and maybe that's lookin' at proprietary stuff that I'm better off not knowin' too much about."

In what seemed like no time at all—and without an encounter to speak of—the four of them arrived at the town, and made their way to the inn. First Jesse, then Aranthra, bought rooms and headed upstairs.

"Oh yeah, you've..got a home," Scylla said, thinking aloud. "Oh! Did we uh, need to get you there?"
"Nah, I can afford a room for the night easy," the fox-girl said. "Actually..I got somethin' I wanted to talk to just you about anyway."
"What's that?"

"Well..how much d'ya know about beastfolk, really? You're obviously interested in 'tryin' it out', so to speak, right?"
"Um..eheh. I guess I know about as much as anyone else?" the wolf-girl said. "We've got a few werewolf and Neko customers at the gym, among other things..And, I have wondered for a while what it's like having a big, fluffy tail~," she said, pulling her own in front to hug it again.

That's unfairly cute, the fox-girl thought, her ears lowering slightly. But she managed to maintain her composure and keep going. "Weelll, there's at least one part'a the experience I think you're missing. You know, it's pretty common for us to, ah, express affection in a certain way?"

"Hmm?" Scylla let go of her tail, headtilting. Kite actually seemed just a tiny bit nervous—her cheeks were even a bit red. "What's that?"
"Well, y'know, pettin' ears and stuff. It's normal for families, good friends...that kinda thing. I just think it'd be a shame for ya to miss out on that part entirely, is all. And..you might not meet someone else, y'know, next time you play that'd be willing to help with that?"
"..Are you offering?" she said after taking a moment to put together the fox-girl's words.
"Y-yeah. I mean, I sure like you enough to, ah, have a good time with it for a bit."
"I would love to!" she said excitedly. "I guess we can probably do this in an inn room, huh?"
"That's what I figured," she said. "Should be about as much privacy as we can get in the game. If ya don't mind me sharin' a room with ya?"
"Oh, not at all!" the wolf-girl said excitedly, turning to buy them a room and eagerly starting off toward the stairs.

Well, now the little miko was nervous. It was one thing to tease a person, to try and slowly push them toward a certain thing...and another entirely to have them dive in head-first when she had only been maybe a third of the way into her pitch. She just tried to remind herself that this was something she'd wanted since not too long after meeting the gorgeous wolf-girl; in fact it was something vaguely like this that she'd picked a female player-character for all along! Being a personal trainer at a gym, Scylla's real body was probably physically fit, and maybe quite pretty itself, too...So she followed the taller girl's eager steps up the stairs one at a time until they got to their floor, then hurried with her shorter pace-size to keep up on the way down the hall.

Once inside, the wolf-girl approached a dresser and put her hand on its top. "Oh, heey..check this out!" A quick puff of white smoke seemed to instantly replace her clothes with a tank top and a tight pair of soft gym shorts. "Clothes change! I guess this outfit's restricted to 'bed wear' since it doesn't include my weapons or anything," she said, looking down at herself, "Buut, there's a bunch of options I could switch to on my way out, too. Oh man, I can't wait 'till they add the ability to buy a home and teleport back and forth to it and stuff!"
"H-heheh." Kite couldn't help but giggle; Scylla's enthusiasm was equal parts hilarious and infectious. "I guess I'll give it a try, too." The samurai didn't move very far out of the way as she crossed the room to the dresser, and she had to force herself to not stare at the...impressive view that the deep cut of the top provided. Her own options for outfits sprang to mind when she got close to the dresser, and tapping it while thinking of one of them seemed sufficient to cause a change into it. She wound up in a short-sleeved robe, its hem about the height of her thighs, with an extra hole for her tails to poke through without flipping it up in the back.

"Uh, what do ya think?" She turned toward the wolf-girl, spreading her arms out.
"It looks great on you! Really cute!" the wolf-girl said, wagging her tail again. "So, is there like a system for this, or can I just reach over and touch your ears now?"
"Err." Kite's mind actually locked up at the prospect of that, and how suddenly and easily it had come out of her mouth, and she just giggled nervously for a second.

"Oh! Um. Sorry, am I like..coming on too strong with this?" she asked, her ears lowering in contrition. "I know I can be super excited about stuff and then just get carried away sometimes."
"Um, no no, that's fine. It's—I think it's somethin' I really like about you, actually," the fox-girl said. "But I guess it's fair to say I expected to be pushing, instead of the one bein' pushed, so to speak? Um..

"Well, there ain't no procedure for everyone or anything, just, y'know, whatever feels right. It's mostly instinct, and—just a, personal expression of friendship, after all," she said, gliding carefully around the other girl toward the bed. "Maybe we should sit down first, uh, just so I don't end up with my nose in your uhh.."

"Your nose?" Scylla followed obediently anyway, as the fox-girl sat down carefully toward the head. "What, in my boobs?" she said, laughing. "Maybe I'd like that, you never know!" She landed next to Kite hard enough for the whole bed to briefly shake.

"Uh, well, y'know, it's just—sometimes if someone ya really like has their hands on your ears, sometimes some instincts take over, and you just start to..lean in toward them," Kite explained, unconsciously beginning to do just that herself. "A-and maybe you just wanna nuzzle their face, but with the height difference and all.."
"Heehee! Well, maybe this will help," the wolf-girl said, grabbing her into a hug so their faces were at the same level—and their chests pressed against each other.

Kite blushed furiously, locking up agian. "Ah—uh—..."

She lowered her ears again. "Oh, sorry. Too fast?"
"N-no, uh. Just." The fox-girl slowly drew her arms around the taller woman's slender waist to return the hug. "Well—maybe, but not. In a bad way?"
"Heheh," Scylla giggled, running a hand gently through the shorter girl's bright pink hair. "Ooh~, it's soft."

"Um, yours are too. I-I mean, you..uh, fur looks.." There was probably no hiding which part of the body Kite had actually meant, so she just gave up. "Would ya just rub my ears already?"
"If you want!"

"Aa~h.." Scylla had a fairly light touch, and the fox-girl wasn't quite ready for how it actually felt. It was true that close friends would pet each other among beastfolk sometimes, but...it was more common for werewolves than anyone else. "Mmh..mrr~rrh.." Actually, this was the first time anyone other than family had pet Kite's ears; it felt good in a rather distinct way that she hadn't experienced before, and had her softly churring and leaning in even closer. Kitsune still had a certain degree of mistrust and caution toward others, and petting put one in a...somewhat vulnerable state.

Near-involuntarily, her own small hands reached up to return the favor. The wolf-girl gave a high yip at first, then quickly relaxed forward, the tip of her nose just barely touching the smaller girl's cheek. "O~oh, that does feel nice," she said quietly, her voice sounding particularly deep and mature. "Same for you?"
"Mnnh..y-yeah.." That was something of an understatement from Kite's position, but it was difficult to get words out with their bodies and faces so close...and with the wolf-girl still gently rubbing the bases of her ears. Instead of trying to get more eloquent, she just leaned the rest of the way in and began nuzzling in earnest, more soft churring rumbling out of her throat.

"Rr~rrf...!" The fox-girl's steady rumbling was punctuated with periodic high yips and low barks as Scylla clearly enjoyed this just as much. Kite could hear her huge, fluffy tail sliding rapidly back and forth across the cover behind her, which only sharpened her urge to touch that, too. While she could keep enough control over her hands to restrict them to the taller girl's ears and hair, her tails turned traitorous fairly quickly, each one curling around one side of the wolf-girl's luscious hips, and then...

"Yyyip! Ahahah!" The wolf-girl pulled back slightly, laughing. "Y-you've got your tails in my tail!" she said, as they continued to gently twist their way around it.
"Mrnh—uh, y-yeah. Like I said, instinct. S-sorry."
"Oh, don't apologize, silly!" Scylla rubbed the top of her head teasingly, which made her face feel even hotter than before. "Rrr-ruff! It feels really nice! Yeah! C'mere you!" Now that she was excited, the wolf-girl's energy seemed to have her nearly yelling every word, and no sooner had she pulled the smaller girl back into the closest hug she could manage—noses on cheeks all over again—than she started aggressively pushing her over onto her back.

"W-a~aah..! Rrf!" Kite felt an embarrassing bark come out as the wolf-girl's curvy body landed on top of her, especially the full weight of those enormous breasts squishing against her own smaller pair. "Aa~aah..mmh, mrrRrrrnnh.." One of her hands returned to rubbing Scylla's ears while the other one ran its way gently through her hair and down her back.

Part of the fox-girl's mind reeled at what was going on now: They really hardly knew each other, besides that both of them were girls just now, so...was it really supposed to feel this good? But Scylla seemed to be enjoying it just as much, and the way she kept diving in headfirst made it difficult not to follow. Her barks and yips were further intermingled with the occasional yell, either an incoherent "Ooh!" or an excited "Yeah!" or something like that—Kite was in no mental state to keep track of the specifics. And, before long, she turned over onto her side (pulling the fox-girl with her) to start stroking the smaller girl's long, pink hair again.

How long this went on neither of them could really say. But, eventually, Scylla let out a loud, wild howl—"AOWROOOOO~!"—and at the same time Kite let out a high, squeaky sort of half-sigh ("Aa~aahh..!") that expressed an equal amount of pleasure in its own way. Their bodies still clinging together and their tails (and legs too, now) tangled up hopelessly, they pulled their faces just about an inch apart.

"This is way too much fun," the wolf-girl said, in that quiet, low voice again that made Kite shiver just slightly. "Hey, Ara's probably wondering why I'm not out yet, though, and..I don't wanna make her worry."

"O-oh, uh, yeah." She nodded, feeling for the moment unusually...the only word she could think of for it was 'submissive'. Like she just wanted to do whatever the person holding her in her arms wanted, and she'd only ever be as happy as Scylla was.
"We should do this again sometime, though!" she said happily, grinning.

"F-for sure," the fox-girl mumbled, lost in those smiling, bright green eyes.

"Mmh." Scylla leaned in, pressing her nose against Kite's cheeks one last time, and then managed to log off in a way that seemed like she was just exhaustedly drifting off into a deep sleep. It seemed that holding on to each other like this was something of an exception to the rule that players couldn't even be touched when they were logged out, as her body seemed to stay solid in Kite's arms—and to continue holding her just as tightly. And...even though she knew the taller girl couldn't feel it now, the fox-girl couldn't resist nuzzling one last time and gently stroking those soft, warm ears before pulling out of the meditative state herself.

The two-tailed Kitsune sat up abruptly in his chair, panting softly. His face still felt warm, and..certain other parts of his body were still reacting just as expected for having recently been in the arms of a gorgeous woman. "Uh..w-wow," he mumbled, carefully uncrossing his legs and putting a hand to his cheek for a moment. "That...ain't what I was expectin' at all. H-heh..." He hopped out of the chair and stood staring at the device taking up half of the room for a long moment. One way or another, he decided..he was going to have to meet that girl in real life. But...there was no reason to rush it, especially since that would entail giving up on his clever ruse. Just...playing with her again, soon, would be good enough for now.

Marcus finally sat up—after Remus had had time to go to the bathroom, get a glass of water, and then walk back into the game room when he realized his friend still didn't seem to have logged out yet. "Hey, what took you so long?"

"Oh, nothing. Kite just wanted to talk for a bit," he shrugged, jumping out of bed. "You know what? I'm pretty sure she's actually a guy using a female character in hopes of getting to be close to other girls." He stretched and then shook off some of the stiffness from lying in the pod. "That seems like a pretty 'Kitsune' thing to do, right?"

"Is..that what we're doing?"

"Nah. We—or at least I—wanted to know what it's like to be someone else for a while. And it's fun, isn't it?"

"A little," he admitted, following his friend out into the kitchen.

"So, are you gonna call her out on it? Or, him..whatever?"
"Nah. She's fun to be around, and wound up with a super cute avatar, anyway. Why not just enjoy it?"

"I gotta admit, before today I didn't know you were into, uh..animal ears and stuff," Remus said, twirling an index finger near one of his ears to suggest the idea of a fuzzy one.
"Yeah? Me either. I mean, I haven't really had much 'exposure' before today," Marcus shrugged. "Soo, maybe I'm not, and I'm just curious? Either way, I'm having fun!"
"Well, that much is obvious. Just don't forget to fill out the feedback form so they'll let us keep playing."
"Yeah, yeah."