The following morning you wake up and look around. You shift and alter your molecules until you're standing once again, in your usual form.

You look over to the bed and see Ace sleeping. Her blanket rode up over the night, revealing a long, shapely leg and by some small stroke of luck, it revealed just the hint of her hip crease, the V shape that leads down to that attractive pair of lips you'd seen last night in the bath. At the same time, she had one breast poking out.

You clear your throat and make your way into the kitchen. You don't have much experience cooking, but you seem to have a general understanding of the concept.

You decide to poke through her cabinets and find one of them is a chilled box filled with various foods kept cold by cold air.

'Ice magic?' You think to yourself. A window pops up:

You sigh and shake your head, confused by the seeming direct response to your question. You decide on some thin strips of meat and a few of the hard things that seemed to feel like a liquid was inside.

As you grab them, screens pop up explaining each. The meat is bacon, made from a monster called a Schwinezor. And the eggs were lain by a small, feathered monster named a Moltu Ferax.

As you begin cooking, screens pop up to guide you through the process, from things as simple as laying the bacon in the pan to cracking the eggs and ensuring no pieces of shell enter the pan. The meat begins sizzling as you grumble about the annoyance of cooking, 'Why can't humanoids be as simple as us monsters... Just eat raw...'

You finish cooking the meal and as you're moving it onto plates, you hear Ace behind you, "Mmm... Smells good. I didn't know you could cook..."

You shrug, "I didn't know I could either. The screens I mentioned the other day guided me through it."

Ace grunts as she makes some coffee, setting water to boil on the stove with a handful of coffee grounds tossed in. She turned and walked towards the bathroom. As she reaches the door, your words finally sink in.

She stops and turns towards you, "I'm sorry... what?! Your screens guided you on cooking?!"

You meet her gaze as you swirl the coffee to keep the grounds from searing on the bottom, "Huh? Yeah. Same as I knew to keep the coffee moving. It's drinkable otherwise, but the flavor is better this way, apparently."

She stares at you, blinking, "Alright, it's too early for this weirdness... I'm gonna piss. We'll continue this once that black liquid is down my throat."

You smile and nod, "Of course. I know it's weird."

She turns and walks into the bathroom mumbling. Moments later you hear liquid splashing. As it comes to an end, she walks back out and to her dresser, pulling on a pair of blue denim short-shorts and a black tank top. she makes her way over to the kitchen and takes a bit of the food.

As the eggs touch her tongue, she freezes and looks up into your eyes, "Mmmph! Mmph hhmph!!"

You stare blankly so she swallows and sighs, "What the fuck, Y/N! These are fantastic! It's official, you're my cook from now on!"

"If you insist..."

"I do! Now eat up. We've got a big day ahead."

"Why's that?"

"We need to turn in the quest for slaying you. You're not dead, but neither are you still there killing people. We'll pick up another quest - I saw one for clearing a nearby nest of gnarlings that I'm sure no one else would've grabbed. Then we can get started. They're a low-level monster that you can certainly handle by your strength, but I'm still just a low-level."

You nod, "Sounds like a plan."

***

After turning in the quest, Ace wasn't happy about only receiving half the reward since you hadn't actually been killed. The gnarling quest was indeed still available. She'd accepted it and the two of you set off.

You walk along toward the woods the gnarlings had been reported in, keeping a relative silence for a while.

After about an hour of walking, you glance over, "So, can I ask... Is there a big bad, or an evil church, or something that we can work up to defeating?"

Ace grins over, "Look at you, already looking to save the world. But no, there's not. It's a relatively peaceful time right now. Occasionally a small squirmish will break out between kingdoms, and higher-level monsters will wreak havoc, but nothing that I'd really call a lord. Not for the last hundred years or so. So for now, just work on getting stronger with me. I'm still just an E rank, and you have no rank since you refused to join the guild. So for now, we're just mopping up the trash the larger adventurers can't be bothered with."

The woods come into view and Ace picks up the pace. You break into a jog and keep pace alongside her.

As you near the woods, Ace pulls her dagger and glances over, "Ready?"

You grin at her, "Shall we make this interesting? A competition. We divide and conquer. Whoever kills more can request something from the other."

Ace nods, "Sounds good. When I win... I want you to give me a back rub."

You raise your eyebrow, "And when I win, I want you to show me what an orgasm is."

A screen pops up but you dismiss it before you can read it. Ace smirks, "Deal. Best get that oil ready. I don't plan on losing."

You change your arms into a pair of axe-like blades, "No one plans to lose. But I certainly plan to win." You rush in with a battle cry.

Ace rolls her eyes and jogs in behind you.

You quickly reach a gnarling nest.

They're small, ugly, humanoid-shaped creatures, with a vaguely dog-like face, though their skin is brown and looks more like the bark of trees.

You quickly estimate a total of about twenty. You swing your arm at the first. The sharp blade cleaves through, sending a shower of splinters as you separate the head from the rest of the body. You turn to the next and sweep your arm down, splitting it in half from head to the root-split.

As you have a moment, a screen pops up:

You grumble, "Fuck you..." as you dismiss the screen and watch the two gnarlings you split standing and growing new limbs, having been split from two to four.

You think over your options and decide on a last-ditch effort. You relax your form, switching back to your liquid metallic slime form, before stretching out and completely covering the now four small gnarlings. As you do, you send multiple small blades inward before filling the cavity with the fluid you used to digest food, quickly dissolving the wooden, fibrous beings.

Once they were gone and dissolved, you switched back to your humanoid form.

A screen appears:

You snarl and hold your finger up, pointing at the next gnarling, "SPARK!"

A small flame extends from your finger to a gnarling, igniting the wooden creature. You watch as the flames slowly work up to engulf the whole thing. You turn around to find Ace was fighting another three, and she had several burned, charcoal corpses around her.

'Fuck...' You groan as you take aim and cast Spark at the remaining enemies. Once they were all gone, Ace grinned and walked over, "So... What's your final tally? Mine was fifteen."

You sigh, "I guess I lost. I managed to kill six. Though two of those split into four because I just cut them in half. I ended up just devouring them."

Ace grins, "Still only counts as two. You made them four, so the other two don't count."

You grumble, "Let's head back. I'll give you your massage."

Ace stops you with a hand on your arm, "Y/N... Did you really want to see me orgasm...? Or did you want to experience it?"

You shrug, "I'm not sure if I can or not. I'm not actually humanoid. So I suppose I wanted to see yours."

Ace grins and walks over to a tree. She strips off her clothing and leans against the rough bark, "The reason most people don't fight gnarlings is because fire is the best way to kill them... but their sap is an aphrodisiac. And it's more powerful when burned, so..."

Ace slides her hands down her belly, to her dripping slit. She spreads her labia, revealing the delicate flower within. Her fingers find their target and she starts rubbing and grinding.

She looks up at you, her face flushed and panting slightly, "I'm not sure how long it'll take... gnarling sap is potent."

You walk over and stand next to her. You place a hand on her stomach, feeling her abs tighten. You slowly trail your hand down her belly. As it nears her sex, she gasps and grabs your wrist, "No, Y/N. Only myself. But please... Watch me. Watch me cum!"

You nod and move in front of her, taking a seat on the ground. You watch as she alternates between rubbing her opening and clit with one and her other slides her fingers in and out of her slick hole.

Ace begins moaning louder, "Oh, gods, Y/N! It's... Fuck... it's happening!!" She gasps and shudders. You see her muscles clenching. Her breath catches in her throat. After a moment, her breathing begins to slow and her body relaxes. She slid down the tree, groaning as the rough bark scratched her back.

She opens her eyes and looks at you, her voice low and husky, "Now that was an orgasm..."

You raise your eyebrow, "It was... interesting to watch."

Ace smiles at you, "Usually it's not that powerful. I kind of liked being watched."

You offer your hand to her, "Shall we go?"

Ace takes your hand and stands up. As she pulls on her clothes, she looks over at you, "Well, I won, but you still got your prize."

You grin at her, "I'll give you a back rub today and tomorrow when we get back to your place. Deal?"

Ace nods and walks off, back toward town. You fall in step behind her, staring at her ass as she waggles it, and her tail, towards you.