Hikaru squirmed a bit under Amy’s gaze. She had known something was off when she had woken up this morning, and discovered that her body wasn’t coated in girl cum. In addition, her bedroll wasn’t stained either, and her haphazardly discarded clothing had clearly been cleaned and neatly folded for her. It was quite plain that someone had cleaned her and her tent up while she was sleeping, and that had meant someone knew that she had masturbated last night.

Of course, it was just her luck that it was Amy who knew. At the moment Ruri was still in her own tent, and the two goblins were curled up around each other. Still nude, but sleeping in the early morning sun. Amy spoke up again, “Well, did you enjoy your little self-play?”

She looked away, and in a small voice answered, “I was just curious. I had always wondered what sex was like as a girl, and ...” she started mumbling at this point, and Amy leaned forward.

“Well if you wanted to know that. You could have just asked me, I am more than happy to show you all the pleasures of being a girl. I could even teach you things that your clumsy fingers likely can’t”

Hikaru missed the little emphasis and what it meant entirely. Instead, she realized that Amy didn’t seem repulsed at all. A part of her had been afraid that Amy would look down on her for that, and she felt a bit of relief that she wasn’t. Amy noticed her change in posture, and expression saying, “Its only natural to want to explore your new side, and if you want I’ll help you explore. I’ll teach you everything there is to know about being a girl.”

Hikaru again missed the emphasis Amy had placed on certain words, and instead of thinking back to what pleasure she had felt was wondering if it could feel even better. She didn’t even consider that she was taking steps down a road she might regret later, instead, she quite eagerly replied, “You mean that!?”

Amy happily replied, “Yep, everything!”

This time Hikaru noticed the emphasis but didn’t think anything of it. Maybe if she had things would have turned out differently. Not long after that short little conversation. Ruri joined them at the campfire, and then the goblins woke up. They had a decent breakfast and then struck camp to continue their journey.

The morning went by without any incident, but around noon the mana started to feel a little weird to Hikaru, and Amy told her that they were entering a corruption zone. She was a little surprised that they had found one so soon, but she guessed that was only natural given the village was having monster problems, and it wasn’t too far from here. Other than the strange atmosphere the area seemed peaceful enough, but Hikaru kept an eye out.

She already knew that monsters would naturally congregate in a corruption zone, and that meant they were more likely to encounter monsters here. Not only were they more likely to be encountered, but they would tend to be stronger.

It wasn’t long before their first encounter showed up. She had been surveying their flank when a sudden load growl signaled the arrival of a large cat beast. In fact, it was no exaggeration to say it was huge. It towered over them, its legs seemed as thick as logs, and it was built like a brick. Even with its thick coat of dark fur, she could tell its body was heavily muscled.

The massive cat barreled right at them with hardly any warning, and the party moved out of the way. A flurry of vines shot out of the ground and ensnared the creature’s legs, and it stumbled. Planting its face hard in the ground. Bolts of ice slammed into its side a moment later and drew blood which quickly soaked into its thick fur. The wounds however hardly seemed to phase the large creature, and it used its powerful muscles to pull itself free.

The vines snapped, and the creature turned to face the nearest member of their party. Who so happened to be Ruri. Its large paw swept towards her in an instant, and she raised her shield to block. The hit swept her off her feet, and she landed a couple of meters away, rolling. She came to a stop and got back to her feet. Amazingly she had only a few minor scratches. Ruri quickly moved toward the creature, and Hikaru considered switching back to her male form.

Just then more vines shot out the ground to restrict the creatures movements, and several large spears of ice penetrated one of its rear legs. The large cat creature gave out a mighty roar the instant the ice pierced its leg. Clearly enraged it broke the vines again and charged this time barreling towards Amy. The little goblin that had the dagger intercepted it and managed to stab it in the leg. For her trouble, she got batted away, but this gave Amy an opening. She unleashed another ice spell. This lance of ice flew straight for the creature and penetrated its eye. The mighty creature shuddered and slumped to the ground clearly dead.

Hikaru ran to the little goblin and found her to still be breathing. The creatures swipe had broken a few of her bone and left her bleeding. Channeling power through her staff, she cast her powerful healing spell on the poor goblin. Quickly her wounds healed up and closed. Her bones mending as well, and she was soon in good condition. Honestly, she had felt kind of useless against that creature and it reminded her of her unfortunate experience with a lesser dragon.

Amy must have read her thoughts, and said when she got close, “Good job healing our friend, and don’t worry about not being able to contribute during the fight. That was a Pandark, a rather vicious feline monster that even experienced adventurers have trouble with.”

Ruri who came close, interject, “Actually it was a King, bigger tougher, more than twice as mean and far more territorial. I doubt we will find any other monsters around, well except maybe a Queen. King Pandarks will drive every other monster out of their territory with the exception of a Queen Pandark.”

Hikaru commented, “you seem to know a bit about them.”

“Of course! I have always wanted an adventure. I made sure to prepare for one, and studying local monsters was a must on the list,” replied Ruri smugly.

Amy said, “In that case, how likely do you think it is that we will find a queen as well?”

She glanced at the king, and replied thoughtfully, “Honestly? Not very likely. Queens tend to be rather solitary and like to wander. They only link up with kings during mating season and leave once the kits are strong enough to care for themselves. Mating season ended about three months ago, so the queen should have left by now.”

Hikaru stared at the large creature, and said, “I hope you are right about that.”

Thankfully, she proved to be right about that and they were able to find the source of the corruption zone, and clear it up without further incident. As for the Pandark, it was too large for them to transport, so they claimed its fur which would fetch a decent price at market. One of the goblins was chosen to serve as a pack mule and carry the large luxurious coat of fur. Hikaru wished that she had names to call them by, but neither one had a name.

That night they stopped at a small building on the road. Its owners had apparently abandoned the cabin, and recently. It was obviously a small inn and farm. Ruri mentioned that it normally served travelers on the road as a way stop. Reaching it meant they were about halfway between the village and town. The nearest town was apparently called Yilsu, and it was a bit of a trade hub for the local clans. Many clans came there to trade goods with each other.

Ruri suggested that the owners had left the cabin because of the rise in monster activity. Amy had discovered that the local wards for the building had failed, and suggested that they left because no priest had come to renew them. Hikaru had to agree with both theories and ended up helping Amy renew the wards. Once that was done, they ended up selecting rooms in the inn. There were only so many rooms, and they choose not to use the owner’s floor. Besides none of them could find the keys to that floor, and none of them knew how to pick a lock. In addition, they didn’t want to expend the effort to knock down a door. So that left them with the few rooms on the second floor. The second floor only had three bedrooms and a bathroom. The bathroom was a real surprise to Hikaru as most bathrooms in this world were separate from the main building. This one had a few magical fittings to it that made it a real treat.

Anyway, with only three rooms, the goblins were given one, and Ruri got her own. Somehow that left Hikaru sharing a room with Amy. They didn’t need to set a watch as the renewed wards were actually quite sophisticated, and the building had fairly sturdy doors. Amy, of course, took the opportunity to start teaching Hikaru the pleasures of being a girl.

Meanwhile in the dungeon under the red temple. Arlie collapsed onto a safe room bed. She was exhausted after her latest test. She had passed thankfully, but the boss had proven very distracting. She had clearly known she was distracting and did everything to draw attention to her assets and make it harder for her to think. Thankfully she had recently had some fun times with the twins, or she never would have been able to suppress her urges. As it was she had needed to comfort herself after the test.

One thing she was glad about was that the boss decided to remove the curse on her outfit allowing her to exchange it for something else. She sure wasn’t going to make the mistake of using this kind of gear again, and she knew the twins who had collapsed beside her wouldn’t either. As she slipped into slumber, she comforted herself with the thought that this trial was almost over. She had only two floors left to go, and it was much easier to take their test than to fight them. After that, she knew that she and the twins were going to have some awkward discussions. However that could wait, and her tired mind barely gave that any thought. One thing she was grateful for about the outfit was that it helped her get closer to the twins.