Chapter 81

 

 

I finally pull myself back to rest on the blanket. The tent is so small we can’t really stand up but have to stay low. It’s really early in the morning.

I’m tempted to go back to sleep, since Asakura had woke me up with only six hours of sleep. I’m lucky I got in what training I could with Sunghee.

Strangely enough, Asakura refuses to separate from me. It’s like a little kid that can’t talk. She’s stayed impaled on my rod and is totally zoned out while we’re feeding, even after doing it over and over again. When I try to push her off me she starts to growl like a cat. She seems to like this spot a bit too much.

How many times has it been? I forgot…at least it’s been a lot of fun.

Weird though…

So...if I look at this from a survival stand point, it’s possible this is an incubation period for a new skill being activated in Asakura. Akira had a down time period while turning into a satyr. Thankfully, Asakura won’t be a satyr, I think…

But the point is, what will she turn into?

She’s progressed further into whatever it is, that is going on. She still looks human, and there are no animal parts still but I’m wondering what it will look like in the end. Her physical appearance seems unchanged mostly and not just no animal parts I finally conclude after a few more confirmation checks; which is important because the second part of that was me wondering if animal parts would show up later. Now I think they won’t…probably…

Feral state maybe…?

Or partly feral, but not dangerous, as long as she stays with me?

The intelligent look there from before seems different somehow. At this point it’s not better or worse but seems more sinister looking. She definitely is different on the inside. She still has dilated pupils it seems while staring off into space less than before. Could that be from the advanced pheromones acting on her? Her eyes see me and see other things, but seem darker inside. It’s like trying to see the bottom of a well.

How do I fix this? I want the old Asakura back. She was reliable too, and my best supporter. I need her to be more than just a mannequin right now but I’m not sure how to get it back.

But, to think, she could get some hidden skills now. If I can get her through this anyway.

She also has a strange, almost revolting reaction to clothes. That’s the weird part. Since we’re in the small tent together and the front flap is closed it’s OK, but I hope the others haven’t noticed. When she was forcing me to have sex with her I had to keep my hand over her mouth at times, so she’d stay quiet. I’m lucky that she isn’t a biter or I probably wouldn’t have a hand.

“Hey can I come in there with you guys?” Rina’s voice whispered.

“Eh?” this can’t be happening!

It’s the worst thing possible. Rina trying to come in now and it takes forever to wrestle clothes onto Asakura once they are off.

“No!” I said quickly after trying to think how I can cover this up.

Asakura is still sitting on my hip impaled in sex. Every once in awhile she tightens up and tries to see if I can start going again with her with her legs wrapped around me like a vice. I tried to pull away again, to address the Rina problem, but Asakura tightens up even more and won’t let me get away. If she tightens anymore it will hurt. She starts to look like she’ll get feisty.

I hear the tent flap wrestling.

“No stop! It’s too early! You can’t come in!” I said quickly. I have to pull on my own clothes first, and it seems very much more dangerous for Rina to see me naked than for her to see Asakura naked.

“Oh come on its fine. It’s just like when we were five and took baths together,” Rina said.

No, it’s not like that at all.

I hear a low growl coming from Asakura.

“Asakura never took baths with us. Uh Rina, we also never took baths together. Mom was afraid of that in you even that early on,” I reminded her.

“Darn, I guess that’s true. Still, I can dream right?” she sighed.

Seriously?

I did manage to at least cover up Asakura’s hip over mine, but she refuses to budge or get off. This is also a signal something is wrong because the previous Asakura would never let anyone see her nude. And because she is a lot stronger than me I can’t push her off.

“Don’t come in,” I repeated.

Rina sticks her head in anyway, “wow you guys really are a couple now huh?”

“Obviously yes…Rina we need some space for a bit,” I said patiently.

Awkward…

Rina is staring at Asakura’s exposed very swollen and fat boobs. Actually its weird how they are so big that Asakura can totally lean over me and still have them touch me when we’ve still got some distance apart. It’s like a medical miracle. Because she was hanging over me I wasn’t able to cover us with a blanket. It’s also very fascinating.

What do you say to something like this?

Asakura growls at Rina and looks like she will swipe off her head in one strike. What have I created? She seems so dangerous now?

Rina turns to me, “she’s not taking this very well is she?”

I can’t believe what she’s saying. “Uh Rina, most people wouldn’t take this very well.”

Rina seems very determined. “Can’t I stay please?”

“No!”

“Please?”

“No! Who the hell would let their sister watch? That’s gross!” Even as she watches and I’m trying to push her out Asakura is trying to start moving again. That…seems inhuman. Most humans would have a psychological reaction to not wanting to be seen.

“Oh my gosh, are you guys like doing it. Like right now?” Rina seems like she’s getting off at least in her twisted little mind. I can almost see the lights and switches overloading in her brain.

“Stop it! Leave!” I said again.

“But you guys have all the fun!” she sounds disappointed.

OK, she’s insane even more than Asakura. I wonder if this world’s strange wildness or wild card brought out that trait in Rina more. A world of monsters would have a different mentality.

Asakura growls again low. But suddenly she leans forward getting ready to push Rina out of the tent. While doing so her legs are in a frog leg type position, pointing out to the side while she’s hanging over me. It’s showing off too much. In doing so she accidentally pushes the towel completely away that was covering both of us up and our connection.

Rina shivers, “wow, that’s hot.” She breathed out heavily. “Is that how it really looks? Computer videos don’t really capture the detail this well!” She sounds excited now.

“What the hell? You watch porn?” I am shocked. My mouth is hanging wide open. To find out your cute little sister isn’t so cute anymore and has weird habits, makes you age inside.

“Uh, not that much. It’s Yumi’s doing, I swear. She kept trying to trick me into it and saying stuff like it’s normal for everybody and to not feel bad about watching people do it. Then she started to show me the girl on girl stuff later. When I’d go to her house, she’d conveniently have it already playing when I entered the room,” Rina said.

“You don’t need to see stuff like that,” I said. If Yumi were here, I’d be sure to punish her.

“Damn Yumi,” I found myself saying right after that with a few other swear words.

“I know right! The real thing is ten times better!” she gasped.

“That’s not what you are supposed to think,” I gasped.

She’s still misunderstanding…badly. She really needs help, badly. Does this world have psychiatrists?

“No, you shouldn’t see any of it period,” I protested.

Just at that moment, Asakura starts to rock forward and back with her hips. It’s very distracting.

“Go away! Get out!” I said.

“I can’t. It’s too…” Rina lost her thought, trying to see more.

“Dang it! I told you to stop that,” I protested.

Neither of them are sure to which one I am referring to. Maybe it’s better that way.

Rina’s perverted eyes are glued to Asakura’s exposed snatch, enclosed around my package. She then sees Asakura start to bounce lightly on top of it. Asakura has also forgotten her legs are spread too openly, while she’s got a spacey look on her face.

For someone like Rina seeing this is way too much.

“Get out! Shoo!” I said.

“I want to watch,” she protested.

“No! You can’t,” I said.

Asakura is totally spaced out, and then she suddenly reaches out and is holding my arms down. I’m now powerless to stop her, with whatever is causing her to be this strong. She doesn’t even bother trying to stop sex again, even with Rina watching.

This pheromone thing has become a bigger hindrance than being stuck in the cavern. I hope we can remain undiscovered, but the more I know about this the more impossible that seems to be. And it’s making Rina’s mind melt it seems like.

But as Rina is hypnotized I can see something else is off.

Asakura’s boobs have clearly grown in size. I hadn’t seen them until she confessed her love to me, so I hadn’t been sure. But now I am.

They look very swollen and beautifully droop with heaviness with a good, what… maybe 30% gain?

This is so swollen that the droop just adds to their magnificence and wonder. Somehow a little bit of sag adds to their beauty as long as it isn’t too much. Now it’s obvious they’ve grown a lot. Her nipples haven’t grown in size it seems, but are permanently erect. She didn’t used to have erect nipples even yesterday. From remembering how she looked at the infamous spanking incident I can see the aureolas have grown wider and bigger in circumference as well.

This is also something you might expect on size queens or something in whatever videos Yumi was trying to show Rina…except her waist is still very small and the rest of her body isn’t overweight. Still…I hope they stop growing. If they get even a little bigger it will be hard for her to even wear clothes. Actually even now our clothing expense is going to go through the roof because of it, making me cringe.

All of that has happened since yesterday and yesterday’s growth was still beyond belief. Because I’m not a measurement expert I’m not sure how much of an increase this is exactly, but she was already big before…

I reach out and touch them. Wow, so heavy! I’m surprised at how big they feel. Oh, that got a reaction. Asakura breathes heavily when I do that. But when I feel them, they are like sore and inflamed to the point of redness and bruising from growing too fast. It should be too impossible for them to be like this on a small body, so I am sure the demon DNA influence is active.

I cast a few heal spells on both of them and the discolored effect goes away but they stay the same size. I hope that helps with the inflammation.

It makes Asakura calmer, but she still won’t stop. For now I have to calm her down. There’s only one way to do that so far. I have to let things run their course. I will unfortunately have to let Asakura also show aggression to get Rina out of the tent first.

About three hours later, Rina and Asakuara are now quiet and we’re dressed. The dwarves are up too. But for the last hour I’ve been trying to get Asakura to wear a shirt. It’s not working, and I’d had to fight with her to get her to put it on. It really does feel like I’m raising a small kid. She’s loyal but very much intellectually blocked off somehow.

I hope it doesn’t continue like this. I feel bad for being a bad example.

But there’s no other choice. We’ll have to do the deception game thing with the dwarves using Rina to fake them out on what’s going with Asakura using the dog leash again.

I couldn’t get Rina to leave though, and Asakura was holding me down so it’s not my fault, I keep telling myself.

Sometimes Rina blushes whenever she looks at me, ever since then.

But at least I’ve explained to Rina this isn’t a one night stand. I don’t want her to think one night stands are OK. To me this is also real love…just that she’s momentarily out of her mind. She did choose to have a relationship with me before this happened too. I told her Asakura and I care deeply for one another and have been dating; which is also true. I think it’s harmful to just use people like they are candy and then throw them away too.

Rina accepts it that we are a couple, but it took about an hour or more of explaining. She does know something is up with the changes though. Once I have more information she’ll expect an answer on that too.

Rina has very obviously also noticed yesterday that Asakura is acting weird, but somehow mistakenly thought she was mad at her for trying to watch during sex. She’s apologized a few times, but it makes Asakura’s face twitch in like what looks like an almost angry look.

But it turned out that what happened with Akira turning into a satyr and everyone from Earth getting a skill, who was transported...no, kidnapped to this world, has changed her mind into accepting whatever is happening to Asakura.

This was really important for a development though for many reasons.

For starters, I was going to have to have some kind of story like that because I needed Rina to not be suspicious of the demon item box yet. I haven’t told the others yet about anything regarding it. If I do, there is the chance they will betray me, or want me to share it with them. Right now Rina does already know I have a magic tool box, but sooner or later if she uses her brain she’s going to realize the changes in us have to have a source.

Its powers are by very nature something you can’t share.

Also I will have to come up with a story to Rina and possibly others; depending on if Yumi, and Akira are still alive. Yuriko will go along with whatever Akira wants, since she is a bit weaker.

But they will have to have some reason to explain Fox and Sunghee still too.

I’m debating about possible options for this. Since I haven’t brought them out yet I haven’t worried about it. But it is a problem that will have to be addressed very soon. Another reason I hadn’t pushed bringing Fox and Sunghee out yet, is because I have no way of knowing when the demon box will try to lash out at me. I may need them inside it, to protect me in the dream state.

But still, inevitably I have to explain the existences and what’s going on with a good story.

Telling Rina the whole truth is problematic too, because she may want to ‘join the team’. And since she’s also my cousin and that can’t be allowed to happen.

Still...she might get an idea that something helped kick start the changes in Asakura besides being kidnapped to another world, where physics and magic exist and act differently than on Earth. We hadn’t pressed Akira too much on this, and what had happened to him to cause him to get ‘satyr’ job class instead of ‘ranger’ or some other job.

This can be a weak spot that needs covering.

I could have a cover story that some kind of undead bit me and that caused the changes? Or side effects from something that original orc boss did that infected me? But will that be believable too? Come to think of it, how will Rina react if she thinks I’m a demon or undead? She has to start coming up with that idea soon. But I don’t know for sure if she will stick with me then. Demons and undead are always portrayed in any kind of story as parasitic and harmful to humans, plus Rina has a sense of fairness and justice. Growing up she didn’t like other kids to be allowed to be bullied, in part because she knew what it was like to be the person that was weaker.

What if she perceived me to be a threat or harmful to people?

It’s not impossible that Rina might not always choose my side in thinks. She had for example, been somewhat involved secretly with Yumi’s plans, which I still don’t know the full extent of.

I need to have a backup plan. And being able to actually use that backup plan means I have to be wary and alert. Therefore…I will have to lose sleep and unfortunately be up before Rina goes to sleep and up after she goes to sleep too.

That will become a pain in the ass.

We ended up exploring the side tunnels again, while the dwarves worked after we think we faked them out enough. They were still pounding away at the metal they were shaping on the temporary forge. There was a constant shower of sparks.

It didn’t help their temperament that the food rations were smaller than yesterday’s.

A handful of dwarf guards went with us, while we patrolled the other areas we’d already been in to make sure there weren’t any new goblins coming from other areas.

“So you know the dwarves still haven’t gotten their breathing apparatus to work yet?” Rina asked quizzically. It’s been a few hours since everyone has been up. As we travel around roaming we haven’t encountered any goblins yet so far.

But that raised questions too.

If dwarves can mine and dig vast tunnels and caverns without them collapsing, and if those same caverns can be this big, then how much can goblins do?

Even if the goblins are vastly inferior to the dwarves in technology they should have some ability to mine and dig tunnels. That could mean that they are still trying to get in here from somewhere from a different point besides the water tunnel. They would have probably already have started that tunnel when they first got wind of the idea that the big explosion could have survivors. That means in turn that the goblins have already had several days of digging, and because they have no belief in human rights would push each other to the point of working to death long hours in trying to get here. They also have an idea of the soil composition of this area and the general location of the nexus of the gnome’s colony tunnel locations.

If they are doing extremely long hours like that, then they could presumably even have done 16 hours of work in one day and this is what the third day at least since the big explosion? That means that enough time has passed that they could get in here at any point from now on forward.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure we can escape and surve,” I told Rina.

“OK, I trust you,” she said.

We’d been going this way because Rina also wanted to check for any sign of Yumi or others in addition to a general patrol of the remaining tunnels connected to ours. I agreed to do so, but I was concerned that it was chasing after false hope. We would have known if there was any sign of her being alive earlier.

We went over the area several times, each time searching more and more to be sure. But still nothing showed up.

“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Rina said more than once. I caught her sniffling a few times.

Gone or deserted. Or both.

We’ll never really know what happened will we, I thought.

I’d used my light spell to search better and see if we could find any hidden holes around the spot of the cave in. But there was no such luck. The only thing we achieved was getting dirtier and having more cave dust on our arms and legs while we’d tried to pick apart boulders.

There was also more risk of a cave in the longer we tried to dig through. Sometimes dust settling can be seen and heard from cracks in the ceiling above us. When it does it’s a bit scary because we don’t know how stable this area is. At least that’s what I think the dwarves were trying to warn us about?

We ended up going back after finding no sign of new goblin activity. But I maintained to Rina and Asakura that I believe the goblins are still very close by even if they aren’t showing up anymore for now. I don’t want them to think that we can relax our guard.

By mid afternoon it was our turn to go into the water tunnel again. We managed to help the dwarves repair the water ladder, and there is still no sign of additional goblins.

But they have to try again soon right? And what if there is more than one of those tentacle beast things roaming around? Deep inside, I’m uncomfortable with how confident that last boss I killed was and how confident it’s goblins were. Why would they be so confident if they didn’t have other allies nearby?

Later we were surprised when the dwarves turned on each other in argument because of the stress they are under to escape with us. At least that’s what it seemed like until Hrogin intervened.

We still aren’t sure what the fight was about. But two dwarves turned on each other. It wasn’t a death match, so we weren’t too riled up from it. But it did mean the dwarves were on edge and getting desperate since they are stressed out and showing it. They wanted to be out of there fast and somehow that bottled up stress was coming out.

The result of all the stress compressing upon them with their pride and with no way of letting it off was a massive fistfight between two of them that lasted several minutes. The others tried to bust it up, but they couldn’t keep them off each other. The two of them were even trying to tear each other’s beards off.

That was interesting too. Human fist fights usually don’t last very long because our bodies aren’t as durable as dwarves seem to be. Dwarven bodies seem to have very tight muscles all over with more solid tissue than ours do. Thus, their fist fights seem longer than anything I’ve seen so far, because it takes longer for them to realize they are hurting themselves.

At length though, Hrogin smacked both of them down using the flat side of the blade of his sword and then yelled at them for like two hours straight. Luckily they were wearing heavy coats to absorb the blows. I’m surprised he did that because smacking someone with heavy iron could kill or maim them but it seems that he was being careful…I think. It’s more like a parent getting his two kids to shut the hell up from the way it looks.

When he was done they both looked like chastised children with black eyes. One of them also had a broken nose. But sure enough, they are already making up. In that regard it seems dwarves aren’t too different than human kids in how they make up easily after letting off steam.

I healed both of them, but only after healing up the remaining wounded people first. I did it that way because I don’t want to send a message that the disobedient and wicked get first priority over those that have been doing what they should.

I felt a tinge of satisfaction after that. It not only let me prove my worth again, but it also was showing some improvement in my healing ability.

The dwarves look longingly at the water, hoping it can help them escape.

But when I watch them come back from swimming they swim like a cat likes water. I hadn’t gotten a good look at how dwarves swim before because I’d been so tired and had to regenerate mana quickly before, but now I am seeing it. They really hate this situation after all. I’d been underestimating how desperate they were.

There were other issues too…

When I went out to swim again, I was almost eaten alive.

I’m not even sure what kind of creature it was. But something serpent like tried to grab me while I was scouting the water tunnel. I’d kept my runic shielding up and that bought me some time, while its teeth were crackling at the barrier non-stop.

I couldn’t use the axe either, because axes fight against the water density too much and can’t be swung under water and I’d lost the energy sword which is now in Fox’s keeping.

Because the tunnel was so dark and because the beast was so thick and long I didn’t get a good look at whatever it was that was attacking me as I was swimming. I only got a good look at its massive jaws and teeth. Plus even for things I saw it was moving so quickly in the water I was pulled away from the area I wanted to be in.

It seemed it was trying to pull me under to also drown me and not just bite me into little bits.

Quickly I reinforced the runic shielding magic, and alternated spitting out starry missiles at it. Fortunately the magic missile spell works under water, though I hadn’t wanted to test it out this way. I kept burning them through the water like little electric rays as they kept biting at the serpent. I was lucky I could zip out the spells quickly in just a few seconds each.

The problem was that the starry missiles spell formation wasn’t very strong of a bite on such a big beast. I had to burn through a ton of mana and used about ten casts of runic shielding before I’d even gotten any kind of a real sting into the beast.

My fear of running out of air was running crazy while all this was happening.

When my shield was nearly collapsed on cast number twelve of runic shielding was when the water serpent thing had finally had enough of getting burned before it let go and took off. I was only unhurt because of the runic shielding spell. But I’d lost over half of my mana within a minute of fighting and I was now completely exhausted.

I was starting to see black spots by the time I got to the surface again. I also have to make it back quickly because the dwarves have no idea that there are other predators under the water yet. What if they send someone down before I have gotten back up to the surface?

I didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell Rina about this. It would only make her worry more, but that also depends on managing the risk first. If I tell her don’t go in the water, then she will want to know why.

Weirdly enough, somehow Asakura knew, which shows further evidence of her demonic DNA changes and influences.

She shouldn’t have known. But she’s at the edge of the pool, already getting ready to go in and rescue me. She’s apparently bolted so quickly to the water that the dwarves knew something had gone wrong and they are all up and armed around the pool too.

She’d already stripped off her shirt and shoes and gone into the water to rescue me. It was embarrassing that the dwarves were seeing her pull me to shore with no shirt on. She had to change clothes now too because the gnome overalls were all wet, and this cave would give you hypothermia if you let it.

But she did act to save my life!

She’s amazing!

How had Asakura known I was in trouble?

She still looked totally zoned out. She was also over a good hundred or two hundred yards away from my position resting at the time. Was that an added effect of the pheromones and the demon race job? There must be some kind of inner connection from whatever is going on between us. That connection must have like some kind of danger sense or alarm like effect similar to when the queen bee gets excited to warn the other bees’ right?

But then near the end of the day, something else peculiar happened.

We were startled when goblin bodies started to float up into the water tunnel pool. At first, we thought the goblins were trying to cross again and an alarm was quickly raised.

But we were wrong.

One by one bodies started to come through, and we had to figure out what was going on. They weren’t human or dwarf bodies, but they were goblins and goblin remains. The bodies weren’t warm and appeared to have been dead for some time. There also wasn’t really any blood, which was how we knew. The current in the water tunnel also was cold but not so cold it would cool the bodies down instantly.

Within an hour there were at least several hundred goblin bodies coming through, but we’d thought there wasn’t a very powerful current in this tunnel…which meant someone had to have been feeding the bodies into this tunnel.

We also couldn’t risk using all of the rest of our fuel to burn them, until we could get out of here. So it meant if we stayed near the bodies there’d be more risk of disease again.

“Hey Shun, I think those goblins were killed in another battle on the other side of the tunnel,” Rina said.

“Woah, you’re probably right!” I managed to say, after the light bulb went on in my head.

That means there’s someone on the other side of the water trap we were trying to cross! And if that’s true it also confirms again that we could find help, and also that we aren’t at a dead end!

She pointed to some defensive wounds before the killing blows on several bodies. They also weren’t executed, as evidenced by their killing blows being done in different places every time.

After trying to drag the bodies out and move them to other places we had got a good day’s workout for our trouble. It was during this time that one of the dwarves made some kind of discovery. We watched as he said something garbled in dwarvish with a massively surprised tone.

The other dwarves were instantly drawn to what he was pointing at.

“I sure wish we could speak their language,” I said as we warmed up by the fire.

“Me too,” Rina said.

Asakura had been clinging to my arm that whole time while still looking feverishly crazy. I was at least lucky enough that she was docile enough for me to pull her around. She wasn’t letting go now, always hanging onto me ever since I was attacked in the water tunnel.

“What do you think they are talking about?” Rina asked.

I was silent for a few minutes while we watched them.

The dwarves suddenly put up a big cheer.

Then I realized what it was after they’d been carrying on for some time. “The dead goblin they are all making a big deal out of, has another dwarven made dagger stuck in its chest,” I said aloud as I realized what they all were pointing at.

“Shun you are brilliant! I can’t believe you picked up on that,” she said.

“Well, it took a few minutes for me to realize it,” I admitted.

“Eh? Really? So does that mean we’re going to be rescued?” She asked.

“Not necessarily. We shouldn’t count on it either. But it does mean that there is a really strong chance there’s some kind of other dwarven relief force on the other side of that water tunnel that’s dispatched and killed much of the goblins on the other side,” I stated as I reasoned it in my head.

“So that does mean we could get rescued,” Rina reaffirmed.

“It means we have a chance to survive!” I replied with vigor.

The end is in sight!

She’s now openly trying to pick my brain. It feels kind of cool actually. People haven’t often appreciated that I have a good brain back home for various reasons, but little by little it’s starting to show. I can tell also that the dwarves want to pick my brain often, by the look in their eyes when they try to convey ‘pictionary’ drawings to us back and forth when something is going on. They are also frustrated by us not being able to talk to them.

I shook my head, “we need to rescue ourselves. It’s a better chance it could happen now, but I don’t like the idea of gambling on others. This world is too dangerous to rely on others. We need to have our own plan. So we need to figure out how we’re going to save enough air in some kind of device to get across that thing.”

What if our rescuers are also attacked by the water serpent beast? I was only OK from being crushed to death because of runic shielding spell spamming…but if it had been anyone else without a magic shielding ability they would have been easily killed.