After a quick phone call to Mark about the new living arrangements, the resort scheduled the needed changes. By the time we finished breakfast, they’d already wheeled Cale’s pod into my room with plans on swapping the double queen beds for a single king by the time we logged out that night. It was bizarre to imagine housekeeping wandering around the room while my body was comatose. But when else were they doing it? Someone had to be cleaning because I sure hadn’t been.
Once we were in the game, Cale went to the barber to shave his head while I went to respec. Again. Thankfully, the cost didn’t wipe me out nearly as much as it had before. Between leatherworking and the auction house, my gear was in much better shape too.
Salvo logged on shortly after I finished sewing in the last enchantment on my chestpiece.
“My mana regen is going to be amazing with this gear,” I said in group chat, and equipped it, only to be immediately let down. What appeared as a long-sleeved shirt in hand turned into a corset when equipped. With all the pieces on, all I needed was a riding crop to pull off the full Femdom look, thigh high black boots, leather thong with garters, corset and ¾ gloves.
Annoyed and running out of time before we planned on heading to the dungeon, I bought a long cloak of shimmering black dragon scales with +20 Intelligence from the auction house. I didn’t feel any smarter when I put it on, but I was warmer. And more importantly, I could sit down without my bare ass on the seat. Virtual world or no, that’s just nasty.
We decided against returning to the Blister Plains and headed to an area called the Furious Fjords to quest. It was a little higher level than we were, but with me healing again, it wasn’t impossible. We’d need to add more people to our party to level as faster. I checked my friends list to see if Ice9 wanted to join us. She hadn’t logged on since I messaged her about the attack at the championship matches. Even though I understood the danger and accepted it was the smarter idea not to log-in to the game, I kinda liked her and wanted to get the chance to hang out more.
The Furious Fjords were foggy, cold, and damp. I guess you could add pretty in there, but I was too busy dealing with the first three descriptions to feel generous. A Nordic theme ran throughout the entire area, with longhouses, carved wooden shrines, and hunting. So much talk about hunting.
The first few quests required us to get fifteen bear skins from dire bears and collect honey from eight hives for the meadery that really should have its own apiary.
At the entrance to a network of caves, I shifted back to my somehow even more naked dryad healing form. This game wasn’t about to win any awards for its progressive depictions of women. Whoever was responsible for the form had taken the cold environs into account, at least. The chilly bite in the air stopped being a concern, despite my body only being covered by a few flowers, vines, and leaves.
Cale’s eyes traced over the forms of my avatar’s body, one side of his mouth crooked upwards in a lop-sided grin, before returning his attention to the dire bear and casting his bright flare of golden light.
The beast reared on its hind legs, emitted a deep guttural moan, and charged. White foam trailed from its mouth and spattered the rock floor.
The blow from the shaggy brown freight train thudded onto Cale’s shield, throwing him off balance, sending him sprawling and skidding on one armored shoulder piece.
If I had a healing spell for damaged pride, that would be the time to cast it. Otherwise, he took no damage.
The dire bear continued barreling in a straight line until it ran into the wall, stunning itself.
“Might want to avoid that attack next time,” Salvo said from his hiding place in the shadows.
By the time Cale regained his footing, the bear was on him again, this time launching a swipe with its massive paw. The enormous claws screeched down the polished surface of the shield like nails down a chalkboard.
“You can attack anytime now, Salvo,” Cale said, frowning at the green outline of the stealthed rogue in the shadows.
“My bad, got a message at the wrong time.” He drove both daggers into the bear’s neck and held on as the massive beast whirled around.
Injured and furious, the bear lurched sideways, scraping his flank against the rocky wall, and knocking its attacker loose. One dagger remained lodged, glittering in the furry, blood-matted hulk of a beast. The creature brought his front foot three feet off the ground and stomped down on the rogue’s chest, dropping his hit points by three quarters in one hit.
“Big heals incoming, Salvo. Cale, I need you to taunt like crazy so I don’t pull aggro.” I tossed a lingering heal on Cale to help. While it didn’t provide the same punch as a full healing spell, Angel explained to me they create aggression points for the person they’re on instead of the healer. A good healing druid should be able to heal with those alone, but I wasn’t exactly what you’d call good. Acceptable would be appropriate.
Cale nodded at me and roared at the dire bear, distracting it at the last minute before delivering a killing blow on Salvo’s prone form.
It half lumbered; half limped towards the paladin.
Green light formed around my feet as I cast my largest heal. For a split second, a meadow manifested in a five-foot diameter around me before imploding into pure light, traveling up my body, releasing through my hands, and traveling into Salvo.
A deep gash on his forehead knitted, and there was a series of pops as various bones reset themselves. “That was less than pleasant,” he moaned.
“So, don’t do it again. At least for another”—I glanced at the timer on the spell—“three minutes and fifty-five seconds.”
Salvo stretched and flapped his wings, gliding to his feet before vanishing in a puff of brimstone. The green outline raced towards the dire bear and launched a flurry of jabs aimed at major organs. When the dagger finally stopped, the creature let out a dying groan and fell on its side.
He dislodged his misplaced weapon from between two vertebrae and wiped the blade clean on his pant leg. “The message was from my doubles partner. He wants to join us if that’s okay.”
I shrugged. “I’m good with it. Cale?”
“Class?” he asked absently, pulling a gooey mess from the bear that he could sell to a vendor for a few gold coins.
“Ranger,” Salvo said and glanced at me nervously. “Liz has met him, in a roundabout way. He goes by the name WyldH3art0n.”
“The guy from the Killing Fields?” I asked and got my answer when Salvo flinched. “Fine.” I didn’t have a good reason to not like the guy, but something about the way he acted rubbed me the wrong way. But, we could use the added damage, the game was getting more difficult as we rose in levels.
We invited him into the group and summoned him to our location. He arrived with a pet timber wolf in a swirl of bright lights. I’d expected his arrogant smirk when he got there. What I didn’t expect was the lingering kiss Salvo gave him.
Have I been that out of the loop?
When they broke apart, his pale human ear tips flushed a deep scarlet, and he smoothed his nest of messy blonde hair. “Hey, guys,” he said and waved. “I’m Brad. Salvo’s told me a lot about you.”
I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes. “We’re using actual names already?” It was difficult to feel menacing when your tits were hanging out, covered only by greenery but I could pull it off if I needed to.
“You’re Liz, right? You were pretty badass out on the battlefields.”
My glare focused on Salvo. “You sonofabitch. You told him to stroke my ego to make me like him, didn’t you?”
“I might have, but it’s working, isn’t it?” He grinned and winked.
I shot him a middle finger and sighed. “Share the quests with your boy toy and let’s get back to killing shit.” The ploy might have worked. But only a little. And like hell would I ever tell Salvo that. Even though I’m fairly certain he already knew.
As we moved deeper into the cave and as much as I hated to admit it, we could kill things at a much faster speed with the new party member. But I started getting restless. Outside of healing being extremely boring, I missed being Cat-Liz. In real life, I wasn’t the delicate flower who stood back while others fought around me. Why should game life be any different?
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“When we break for lunch, I’m calling in Angel and respeccing again. This time, I’m sticking with DPS,” I said between pulls.
Cale frowned at me. “If that’s what you want.” If there was a way to cast a holy spell angrily, he managed it somehow. In private chat, he asked, “It won’t be weird for you?”
I swapped my own chat to private and responded, “Not in the slightest. Will it be weird for you?”
“Surprisingly, no,” he said after a quick pause. “Guess you could say I’m satisfied with how things turned out.”
A smile crept across my face as I returned my attention to the fight. I tossed a slow heal on him as he dodged a massive paw swipe. That was how boring it was on my side of things; I could barely pay attention and it would be fine.
The last dire bear we needed for our quest fell and we moved on to collecting honey, fighting the giant bees that protected the hive.
Brad pulled a pair with a well-placed shot, leading them to Cale who grabbed their aggro with an area taunt. They were working so well together; I’d think they’d been doing it for years. Maybe that’s just how it went for people used to these kinds of games.
A bee fluttered and thrust its stinger in a lightning fast attack on Cale. He raised his sword in time to parry and sliced the thorax in half with his counterattack.
The other bee took the paladin’s distraction as the opportunity to strike. Its barbed stinger pierced the chain mail on Cale’s side while the mandibles crushed down into the side of his neck. Blood exploded from the wound while his health drained to half and ticked away little slivers of life with each arterial burst.
While I cast my largest heal, Brad sent his pet to draw the attention of the bee. It couldn’t withstand as much damage as an actual tank, but it would keep the mob from attacking Cale while I patched him up.
The wave of green light pulsed around him, sealing most of the wounds. Though the attack from the mandibles still sliced away at his life in regular intervals. Without a way to staunch the bleeding, I could only cast a slow heal to counter it.
In rapid succession, the bee went down after a poisoned strike from Salvo’s dagger and a diseased arrow from Brad. I cast a slow heal on the timber wolf to counter the mandible attack it had taken before getting my share of loot, which was only bug pieces to sell for a few gold.
Brad tore the mandibles off the corpses and asked me for a few strips of leather. He carefully wrapped one end on all four to create daggers, each capable of dealing a bleeding effect. When he finished, he handed me two of them.
The effect would transfer to my feline form and stack with all my innate bleeding abilities. I could hardly wait to use them. I imagined the blood spray they’d create, and pictured my cat avatar dancing in fountains of arterial spray.
In the time it took for me to drink some gooseberry juice to replenish my mana, an area message appeared:
The beast known as Jörmungandr has awoken from the depths. Brave hunters of Arcadia roaming the Furious Fjords, slay him before all is lost!
There wasn’t a word spoken between us, only a collective nod before we summoned our mounts and dashed towards the golden skull icon that appeared on our maps.
Not having called my mount while in Dryad form before, it amused me to see little sprigs of greenery draped on my stag’s antlers and a wreath of flowers draped across its shoulders. It even left a trail of spring grass and blossoms in its wake.
At the top of a rocky cliff, we caught our first glimpse of the beast. The giant snake coiled in a glade of dusky grass, circled by skeletal juniper. Its dusky scales glimmered in an iridescent rainbow of color. The head alone, while hard to tell from the distance we were standing, looked to be about the size of all of us combined, ending with a snub nose and fangs that dripped with dehydrated piss yellow venom. Tendrils of smoke rose from the ground where droplets fell.
I’d nearly lost my nerve before spotting another group engaging the serpent.
“Well, shit, they’ll get the kill and all the loot now,” I said, knowing you couldn’t loot a corpse you helped to kill when someone else had already started doing damage to it.
Cale shook his head, “World bosses are different. We can still help kill it and get all the spoils. Everyone still in?”
“I can’t heal poison,” I said, still bitter about the oversight.
Brad smirked, “I can. Antivenom is a fairly low-level ranger ability.”
“Why can rangers cure poison while druids can’t? Makes total sense,” I grumbled.
With that settled, we pushed our mounts forward.
The other group, a party of five, all had the same guild tag, “In Memorium.” At level 33, their tank was five levels higher than us, so Cale fell behind with the rest of the damage dealers.
The snake thrashed as arrows rained down on it, fireballs exploded, and weapons tore into its flesh. The toxic blood splashed on Cale and Salvo, creating a constant flow of heals to cast. Its tail lashed out, striking Brad in the center of his mass.
He flew backwards, landing on the corpse of a juniper bush and rolling into a pile of bones.
In the time it took me to cast my larger heal, Salvo and Cale had lost ¼ of their health. It wasn’t a horrible amount, but enough to make me realize how little of a chance we had at taking this thing ourselves.
Another group joined, and the health of the snake dropped rapidly until only a sliver remained. It looked like we had it in the bag until the ranger on the new team used a bleeding arrow attack.
Acidic blood sprayed the battlefield, damaging everyone present. Shouts of “Who just did that?” and “Fucking noob!” rang out, combined with “Why aren’t the healers healing me?”
FYI, if you’re not getting healed, it’s because the healer is focusing on someone more important and you’re expendable. Suck it up, princess and hope you have a few healing pots to soften the blow.
Cale dropped to fifty percent health, so I could cast a slow heal on him and hope for the best while I tended to Salvo, who’d dropped down to less than ten percent health. His red bar flickered angrily in my peripheral vision.
I cast a slow heal, popped an instant ability with a super long cooldown that made my next slow heal one large burst and gave him that. When I finally got them stable, I went to cast something on myself, the blood spray had taken me down to a little less than ten percent, and discovered my horrible mistake.
“Out of juice,” I said in group chat, right as another glob of blood landed at my feet. I dodged away, but someone else had used a bleeding attack. Or maybe it was the same damn ranger.
A blur of shining metal raced towards me and pushed me aside before I could get hit by more toxic spray. Cale’s hands glowed a bright gold and my life restored completely. He helped me to my feet and kissed my forehead. “You good?”
The mana regen from my gear had kicked in, but I wouldn’t make for much of a healer yet. “Can you help with back up heals? I’m still pretty low.”
The snake gave one last thrash, sending the tank flying backwards, before it fell with an ear-splitting cry.
Trumpets heralded our victory and a new message appeared:
The heroes of Arcadia have vanquished the mighty foe! The realm is safe… For now.
Golden lights swirled around every member present. I checked to see the snake had been two levels worth of experience, putting me at level 30. A new full heal became available and the slow heal leveled to third tier. Too bad I wouldn’t get to try it; the next stop was Lighthall and goodbye healing. Hello, Cat-Liz Neverseen.
A new menu popped up, congratulating me on killing the world boss for the Furious Fjords. And instructed me to pick my armor reward with either a dexterity or intelligence bonus. I chose the dex set and crossed my fingers it would offer more cover than what I wore. The stats were far better than anything I could craft, so no matter what, it would be an improvement. When I put it on, however, it was little more than a bra and tiny loincloth, again with the mid-thigh boots. The pauldrons had an attached cape of thick, matted fur, and the helmet wasn’t anything more than a string-like leather headband.
I sighed and ported back to Lighthall.
“Before you respec, would you mind heading to the inn?” Cale asked in private, mere seconds after I’d loaded in. It was less question, more demand. Made apparent after he took my hand and nearly dragged me along beside him.
The innkeeper was an overly friendly older human female with bright eyes and a thick German accent. As we rented our room, she waggled her eyebrows at Cale and said, “You take ze druid to room? Make love with ze kitty?” She chuckled at her own joke and handed us each a slip of paper.
“Ew,” slipped out of my mouth before I could control it, but for some reason, it didn’t surprise me at all that’s what she’d expect when someone took a druid into a fuck room.
Cale’s eyes widened as the gears in his head screeched into action. “No, no. My girlfriend is healing spec. No bestiality happening today.”
Girlfriend, huh?
“So, instead of ding-ding with kitty, you make ding-ding with flower,” the innkeeper said with a shrug. She laughed again and waved her hands at us. “Go, go. Sign papers before you jump in bed and enjoy each other’s bodies. Call down to desk if you need any toys or stimulants.” She pressed a large red button on her desk and teleported us to our rental.
The room wasn’t much, but it didn’t need to be to suit its purpose. There was a bed made of wooden slats with a feather mattress, a washbasin, and a copper tub. I’d stayed in some pretty seedy motels in my day, and this felt the sleaziest. Not because the room was actually gross but because sleeping wasn’t a thing you did in the game. There was no other reason for this place to exist other than getting down and dirty.
A translucent barrier of shifting colors surrounded the bed. I assumed it had something to do with the paper she’d given us which read:
I, player Ri0tGrrl, of sound mind and body, confirm that I am of 18 years or older and consent to adult situations with, player DreadPirat3. I also understand that by accepting, Eternia Entertainment will not be held responsible for any actions that occur between the times 18:00 to 19:00 in room 295…
I hadn’t finished reading by the time Cale had already signed his and his armor vanished along with his contract.
Before hitting accept, I transformed into my Dryad form, since it’s what he’d been horning about in the first place. The vines and leaves placed over strategic areas either vanished or moved aside to reveal my avatar’s naughty bits. I glanced down to verify the carpet did in fact match the dark purple drapes.
It was a little uncomfortable at first; it was me, but not me all at the same time. Just as much as I knew it was him behind the elven face and toned body. But his mannerisms mirrored through the figure to solidify in my mind who I was with. A quirk at the corner of his mouth. The way he found the perfect spots, already familiar to him in our short time of intimacy. Down to his reactions to my own exploration of his points of interest.
Sex in Eternia was a whole new level of mind-blowing ecstasy. Whatever the stimulator did in the pod, I didn’t care. Only that I needed one for every room at home. I could only imagine how it sounded to anyone on the outside and wondered if we were moaning out there in the actual world while our pods buzzed with the electronic stimulation.
Shit, I really hope housekeeping is done for the day.