As he held the food in his hand he was pondering for a few seconds, a few seconds that seemed to make Dia almost worried and skittish where she stood. This seemed too important to be just a random food, the way she stood, the way she was looking down, the way her body language gave her a sort of weak form. His hesitance just affected her more and more as the long seconds dragged on.
Sam knew he was not exactly experienced with love or intimacy, but given how she had been sitting against him, how her tails was touching him, how she wanted to be pet... It all hinted that she had romantic feelings. But given how she took to new words and was willing to teach him words and her language, even having a language, she wasn’t dumb, and would probably understand misunderstandings if it came to that.
Alternatively, he could refuse, try to do it as politely as possible... if that would translate at all. In a way, it could have her return to her people, but after the contract bond thing, that seemed extremely unlikely. If she was to fight with him and come with him, looking at it purely logical and without emotion; it was probably better to take the option that was positive in her eyes.
He was conflicted, but in the end, he decided to eat it for now and do his best with whatever the outcome was. He found it to be surprisingly good, like most food in this kind of scenario it could use some salt, though that could just be his modern human palate, with the sweetness of the mashed fruit, the flavour punch of the berries and the meat he couldn’t place what animal it came from was a good combo. The more he ate of it the happier Dia looked, still looking down and acting kind of weird, she was excited. He worried a bit about what this meant, he hoped it was some returning the favour of him helping her when he found her, but he had his doubts.
Though the food was nice, there wasn’t much of it, and he was still hungry, he wondered what happened to the rest of the meat she used, but they had plenty of fish in the cave, it wasn’t like they lacked things to eat. Moments after the gifted food was eaten, Dia looked up at him with almost sparkling eyes, she was ecstatic. All worry and hesitation had seemingly peeled away, and in place was her almost vibrating excitement. It was good that she was happy, but he did wonder what he had signed up for and how this was going to alter their dynamic.
Moving back into the cave, she followed him attentively, almost seeming to try and match his steps like a child having fun. She walked much closer than before and was looking at him more. He was realizing how this had already changed things...
They got back into the cave and sat down, like before, she would sit against him, her tails draped across his lap or around him like she was holding him with it, he didn’t particularly mind this, it was surprisingly nice, but he wondered how it would work out later if he could bring her with him of the island.
Not ending up checking the gear he took from Viper yesterday, this was a good time to do so. They had just been placed in a corner-like area of the cave as they got back, being focused on her health and not meeting more goblins than checking things. In hindsight, it would probably have been best to check that as soon as they got away, after all, he could have perhaps used them.
The robe was light blue and had some other coloured material woven through the fabric, they vaguely changed colour so it was hard to place what they were made of. The Amulet was surprisingly simple, a small metal plate with an embedded blue crystal in it.
[ Storm caller's Robe - C-rank
Defence: 5
+15% Lightning Spell Damage
+10% Mana Regeneration Rate
Resistance: 20 vs electric attacks. ]
[ Amulet of Electrical Mastery - C-rank
-10% mana cost for electric abilities.
+5% Critical Hit Chance with Lightning abilities. ]
He was surprised at the robe, it acted both as armour but also just as an item, it was only C-rank with three bonus abilities, and the low Defense rating or how it was split into electricity defence specifically might be why that was. In either case, though these items were probably worth a pretty penny, they weren’t useful for him. The only thing he could use was the Defense rating, but his armour was better, and the Electricity resistance but... Electricity was a rather rare element, so he didn’t see the need to use it at the moment. Giving it to Dia could be a good idea, if nothing else she’d get a Defense rating of 5, which was more than her 0. It was a simple robe so it shouldn’t be too hard to move in.
But the back of it was shredded, barely anything left from the collection of cuts he delivered on Viper. The magic still worked, based on his experience with his armour, even when damaged like that. The problem was that if you’re unlucky you might not be able to put things on.
With that in mind, he would need to get it fixed before he could properly use it. There was a cleaning and repair fee, or cut, when he sold his TAC armour on his first day as well, so it would probably be something similar.
This meant that he had two sets of gear that they couldn’t properly use. He’d look into selling it when he got back after all of this shit was done, but for now, he decided to take today easy, letting Dia heal before setting out. Given how attached she was today, the odds of having her wait with the cave as he set out felt like it was zero. Instead, he decided to try and have her show what she could do in the sense of Martial Arts. he had seen some punches but that was about it.
Bringing her outside, he tried to mimic the movements she did with the Goblin yesterday, trying to get her to... somehow... Explain or show what she could do. Once she understood what he wanted, she performed some neat-looking moves on him, and he realised that he had no clue where to begin to grade this. It looked good... or so he thought at least, he didn’t know if it was any good.
After she had shown some moves she came running over to him, stopping very close as she started explaining a long string of things he had no idea what meant. In the end, she looked at him with extremely expectant eyes, the only thing he could do was to pat her on the head and compliment her. He dubbed she understood the words but she seemed to love the headpats.
Throughout the day they just prepared things, she showed him some fruit and plants that were good to eat, and when she found things that were bad to eat her tone of voice changed dramatically as she said some other words. He got that they were bad but didn’t understand just how bad.
He started noticing something. Something he realised that was bound to happen. He had somewhat hoped that the food he got was just some appreciation for helping her, and not that it was something romantically aligned, but she had started moving and bending differently than before. When she was picking up something from the ground she just so happened to do it in such a way that she also presented herself to him... When she was sitting down to relax she just so happened to do it in a way that was extra provocative or showed off some part of her...
On the one hand, he didn’t mind at all. He wasn’t immune to female charms and it wasn’t exactly that he disliked Dia. But on the other hand, this was feeling perhaps a bit rushed, or out of place as she had bound herself to him as essentially a slave. However, he hadn’t given her any orders... if nothing else due to lack of language, but she had perhaps misunderstood something as an order... But... As he considered that, she looked too happy for any of this to be forced, it felt too genuine... Besides, did it really matter?
Sam locked himself in a spiral of thought, giving him a weird look on himself, trying to figure out how he truly felt on the subject. He wasn’t some horny monster that couldn’t control himself when anything naked showed interest in him, but he also wasn’t someone who was lying to themselves enough that he would pretend to not enjoy or be affected by it.
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“Sa!” Dia’s voice shouted out as she had come back close to him. She looked almost a bit annoyed like he had been ignoring her for a minute.
In her defence, he accidentally might have.
She went on a long explanation of something, only lightly touching on the few words he understood. Not enough for him to get a context for the meaning. But she pointed in different directions as she did, she was clearly explaining something to him but he had no idea what it was... Responding with an explanation on how he still didn’t understand and had no idea what she was trying to explain only had her happily smile and continue talking.
Well, at least she looked like she was enjoying herself.
Most of their day was like this, she kept showing him around, explaining things. She tried to teach him new words but without several different of the same category of things to compare with, he couldn’t confirm what the words meant. At least he could get the vaguest of hints of what words were used in what group of contexts.
At random times she would shout out for his ‘Shirin’, handing something to his hands in a seemingly random direction. At times they were plants she wanted carried or a stick she wanted to see hit against a tree. Once it was a rock before she faked a throwing motion towards a boulder in the distance, she looked super happy when he launched it and hit. In other times she reached out and requested a hand only to place it on her head. Seeming to enjoy the touch when she walked around the jungle.
Perhaps this wasn’t so bad, had it not been for the threat of death and that he would have to kill people to get off, just this kind of thing could be nice. Something not that nice was the fact that he realised his complete lack of caring killing the people here, it wasn’t that he wanted to kill them but it was just the means to an end. Not more problematic than killing a Goblin.
Her totally accidental presenting continued, he knew what this meant and she looked strangely miffed when he didn’t act on it or pretended to not notice. In a way, it was a bit amusing but he knew what this meant, since these kinds of events only started happening after that special meal, he just got that re-confirmed yet again.
She kept leading him around until they came to a small clearing, as they exited the thick brush of the jungle Sam noticed that this was one of the ruins he saw from the mountain earlier. It looked like it had once been a temple which had been retaken by nature and fallen apart. Dia looked happy as she started explaining things, pointing and moving around. Sam followed and tried to make any contextual guessing of her words, but without any proper comparison, he got nothing.
The ruins themselves weren’t that interesting. It was most likely a magnificent building once in time, the main part still stable was the floor that was once inside, the stone there was smooth, either by lots of time and feet stepping across it or perhaps the rain over however long the ceiling had been gone. There was no hint of what this place was once used for, but it looked like it could have been neat to see it in its prime.
He was a bit sad to find out that it was as lacking as it was, he probed around with his Psyhands to see if he could find something, anything, but even with 22 more hands touching, pressing, pulling and prodding, nothing of interest was found. Odds felt high that the locals would probably have brought back anything they could find across the generations they lived here, and other Players would most likely have had the same idea. So for now it was just some rubble hinting back to something in the past.
After spending some time in that area, they started heading back towards the cave, though the sun was still in the sky, it was slowly going down towards the horizon, and it got dark quickly on this island, once it started dimming.
They got back easily enough, just vaguely following the shape of the mountain soon led them back to the little waterfall in front of the cave opening. As they neared the cave, Dia looked more excited, and as the fire was again burning she looked very fidgety and hesitant in a weird way. He had his ideas of what this was, and it wouldn’t take long before she confirmed it. She became surprisingly clingy and attention-seeking, leading down the path Sam expected shortly thereafter.
His doubts and hesitations faded with the light and Dia got the response she wanted from her advances.
The next day Sam woke up to a slightly different scene than the other few days. Rather than Dia being coiled up near next to his legs, she was by his side, practically wrapped around him with her nose snuggled up against his neck, her tails were wrapped around his legs and he was somewhat tied up in her. Last night was... interesting, and somewhat special in several ways, he expected this to become a possibility around the time he accepted the special meal, but he couldn’t pretend he had much against it at this point.
She was still sleeping, though as soon as he moved that changed. Her large eyes opened and looked at him with a questioning expression. Sam didn’t know how to respond in this context so he just looked back at her, just as confused.
Smiling widely she let out a purring “Sa.” before she uncoiled herself from him, letting him get up and get dressed. He was glad to find out that the rest of their morning routine hadn’t changed that much, she was a bit closer than before but that was the main difference. A casual touch here, sitting closer against him, a weird smelling of him as she walked past him, all in all somewhat what he expected given the situation. He was able to go to the bathroom on his own, though she seemed to follow him at a distance. When she went off on her own he chose not to follow her.
One word he learned, one she had used before, was ‘Zar’. He didn’t know exactly what it meant but during breakfast, she referred to him with that word. He pointed at himself and said it to confirm. She agreed and when he tried asking the same word towards her he was met with a smile and an exciting nod. He assumed it was a word for a significant other, lover, husband or wife or something like that. It matched many things he thought about with the context it was used.
The rest of the morning went through the routine, she kept presenting herself at times which, now had a different tone than before. One thing that didn’t change was her request for a Psyhand, which she repeatedly put on her head, now seeming to enjoy the headpats more than before. And now that they had been intimate, and that feeling was there, he wondered how problematic it would be to have her walk around naked all the time...
[ Quest: The Island
Dominant forces: 3 ]
The quest detailed 3 dominant forces still, unless something weird happened this should be the Bloodfangs, Iron Reavers and himself. The Bloodfangs were the closest and easiest to visit from his cave. There was still the question what to do with Dia in this context.
Her health had increased to 35, it was much better, the same as Sam’s used to be only a day ago, though without the armour. But it was a quarter of her total health pool, he was unsure if they should wait more or not when it came to visiting the other places. If she kept hidden it would be fine, something she was very good at. But even if she was weakened, if they could have her not get attacked, it would be smarter to have her with him, right? Not always an easy task but like before, he dubbed he could make her stay.
Given that she wasn’t dumb, he decided to try and explain it to her in a simple way, he was covered in weapons, the Moonblade the most dramatic of them. Pulling the larger blade he made a fake attacking motion. “I need to go and visit the other camps. It’s going to be dangerous, do you want to come with me?”
She looked at him with a questioning expression, then at the sword before her eyes returned to him with a determined look.
“Thar.”
He had no idea what that meant, but he hoped she knew what she was doing. Sheathing the Moonblade he got up and headed out of the cave, it was time to visit the Bloodfangs, they apparently had a new leader that he needed to do something about.