The aftermath was, to be honest, a bit awkward. The degeneracy all four of them had indulged in had been more than they had mentally prepared for, even if no protests seemed forthcoming.

Once Delta had ‘gotten the toy off’, the door had slid open with a grinding of stone. Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately?—rather than being an alternate path of advancement, this particular obstacle had been a ‘rewards’ challenge.

Which perhaps explained why it had been so much more degenerate than the one Rosalie had needed to undergo. It hadn’t even been required to progress through the dungeon. But how were they supposed to know that? 

Going forward, Zoey supposed, by when the obstacle is so lewd …

Live and learn, she guessed.

And Delta hadn’t complained.

Fuck, Zoey wasn’t complaining either. Even Rosalie—the most likely to have been upset at the development—had seemed into it. Not that Zoey thought Rosalie would have engaged in such degeneracy herself, without prompting, but spectating? Yeah, she’d made it clear she liked it.

A single green-banded chest lay in front of them. 

“I thought you said these were rare.”

Rosalie gave Zoey an annoyed look. “They are. Either these past two delves with you have been astoundingly lucky, or your class—your presence—continues to give … perplexing results. Have you even seen a common chest? A copper band?” She sighed. “Though I shouldn’t be surprised. Nothing about,” she waved her hand around in a distinctly irritated manner, “all this is normal.”

Well. A goddess did send me to save the world. Zoey supposed better loot than average was par for the course. Not that Zoey supplied that explanation.

“You sound upset that we’re getting lucky,” Zoey said teasingly. “And maybe it’s not even luck. We worked hard for it, didn’t we?”

“We?” Delta asked. “Try again.”

“Delta worked hard for it,” Zoey corrected.

“Using my body,” Rosalie muttered. “That better not cause … lasting damage.”

“Having your entire body wrapped around a giant sex toy? Nah, can’t see how that could be bad for your anatomy.”

“There was a potion,” Zoey said pointedly. “Obviously she’s fine.”

“Want Zoey to come check?” Delta sneered. “Make sure you’re as tight as always?”

Zoey paused at the implication, then cleared her throat. Rosalie did the same.

“The chest,” they said at the same time.

They glanced at each other, and Zoey smirked. Rosalie’s lips—Delta’s? This whole, body-swap thing was getting annoying—twisted in amusement too.

They opened the chest.

The first item out—

[Cat Ears]: Uncommon. Highly sensitive. Amplifies senses and improves reactions.

“Excuse me?” Rosalie said.

“Sensitive. Like, in that way?” Zoey asked.

“Mine certainly are,” Delta said. “So it’d make sense. But … why?”

“Why?” Rosalie sneered. “There’s no point asking that question, in these shards.”

“Your ears are sensitive?” Not-Zoey asked Delta.

“Not as much as my tail, but yeah.”

“They are?” Zoey asked. Almost without thinking, she stepped forward and rubbed Rosalie’s fox-ears between her thumb and fore-finger. 

They flattened out, and Rosalie shuddered and took a step back. Her orange-and-white tail flicked in annoyance. “Hey! At least ask. What’s wrong with you?”

Rosalie’s glower had stopped being intimidating a while ago. Added to the twitching ears and tail, and the blush growing on her cheeks, Zoey couldn’t help the grin that split her face.

“I can’t believe I didn’t know that,” Zoey said. “Oh, I’m so making good use of it.”

“With her, sure,” Delta said. “If it’s me in my body, don’t you dare. I don’t like it.”

“You don’t?”

“It’s too sensitive. Dunno. Too personal.”

“Oh,” Zoey said. She shot a hesitant look at Rosalie, in case she felt the same way—but rather than asking the unanswered question, she sniffed and turned back to the chest.

She totally wants me to play with them. Zoey made note of the revealing reaction, the grin returning.

“We equipping them?” Delta asked. “I mean, one of you two can. Hardly need a second set of ears. Dunno if they’d even fit.” She paused. “So, uh, I guess I’d get them, since I’m in Rosalie’s body, right now. Rosalie’s the one who doesn’t need more ears.”

“That’s fine.” Rosalie passed the cat ears to Delta, who took them. “Like I said, we hardly care about second-advancement loot. Amplified reactions are better suited on you, anyway.”

“Don’t care about the loot?” Zoey asked. “Speak for yourself. If it’s perverted, I definitely care about it.”

Delta snorted, and Rosalie huffed.

“You can have first dibs on the gross items,” Delta said. “I appreciate the commitment to perversion, but I’m trying to advance, yeah? So I want the practical stuff.”

Zoey paused, feeling briefly guilty, because she ought to be trying to advance, too, for, y’know, the sake of saving the world. But she perked up quickly, seeing how her class was based on perverted stuff. If anything, she was filling her role.

Nice mental gymnastics, Zoey.

The next item out:

[Cat Tail]: Uncommon. Highly sensitive. Improves balance and acrobatics.

“You’re kidding me,” Rosalie said flatly, holding it up. “It … it …”

It had a butt-plug at the end. Not quite as large as the biggest of the silver toys they’d earned in their first delve, but almost as big as the one Zoey currently had inserted into herself. Her hole clenched against the thing—she’d almost forgotten about it. I’m really getting used to it being in there. For how big it was, she really shouldn’t be.

Delta laughed, and she took the item as Rosalie passed it over. “That’s mine too, I guess. Pass me some lube, Zoey?”

“You’re going to—” Rosalie’s high-pitch response started, then she shook her head and said, “Of course you are.”

Zoey passed over one of the several lube-bottles she had stored in her inventory. Rosalie continued to dig.

Zoey was briefly torn between watching Delta coax a giant cat-tail buttplug into herself and the next item Rosalie pulled out.

The winner was fairly obvious. Delta winced as the toy spread her apart, sliding into her tight hole with a quick inhalation. Zoey drank in the reaction, which Delta noticed, and rolled her eyes at.

“Damn, blondie,” she said to Rosalie. “You’re tight down there. That actually kind of hurt.”

“I’m ignoring you,” Rosalie said.

Zoey’s attention was brought back to the item she’d drawn out. It looked like … well, a wiggling mass of plant-life?

[Writhing Armor]: Rare. Enjoy amplified protection at the cost, or benefit, of constant stimulation.

“Oh, shit,” Delta said. “Armor. Nice.”

Rosalie looked disdainfully at the squirming vines. “Armor?”

“Well. Of a sort.”

“This reminds me of …”

The first shard. “It’s a rare quality.”

“I know,” Rosalie said, nose wrinkled. “It probably provides significant defense, too, considering the downside, and the effectiveness of other items so far.”

“Downside?” Delta asked. “Constant stimulation? I think you mean upside.”

“It’s a distraction.”

“Eh, you get used to it,” Zoey said.

Rosalie glanced her way.

Zoey turned, and, looking over her shoulder with a cheeky grin, pulled her cheeks apart, showcasing the plug still in her ass. “It fades to the background,” she laughed, turning back around as Rosalie made some kind of choking noise.

“It’s still in there,” Delta said, nodding. “That’s good. Rosalie’s is in too, so you’ve been building up energy. Almost forgot.”

What? “Rosalie’s?” Zoey asked. “You have one in?”

Rosalie’s face turned beet-red. She stuck her chin in the air. “Delta’s the one with the nipples rings now. And her body’s the one used to … the size you’re using. So I put it in earlier.”

Zoey’s head spun, even if it made sense. “Turn around. Show me.” She couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed.

“Zoey.” Rosalie glanced sideways at Delta.

“Do it. I wanna see.”

Rosalie wavered, but listened. She turned and pulled her cheeks apart. Sure enough, the smooth, glinting steel of a plug showed through, nestled in.

“She’s a practical girl, remember?” Delta teased. “Which is the same reason she’s gonna put on the armor. She’s the tank, so she has to.”

Delta seemed almost as delighted at this development as Zoey. Though, her enjoyment seemed to be more of the ‘I like seeing Rosalie squirm’ kind, and Zoey’s … well, Zoey’s enjoyment was obvious.

Rosalie cleared her throat. Though annoyed at Delta’s teasing, she didn’t contradict her words; she agreed with the point she’d made.

She steeled her nerves, then lifted up the mass of vines and wiggled her head in between the opening at the bottom, sliding it down her body.

The response by the twisting plantlife was instantaneous. They squeezed in and writhed down, equipping itself without need for Rosalie to adjust them. Two vines encircled Rosalie’s tits and squeezed them tightly, shaping and pushing them out with the strength of their grip. Another two wrapped between her thighs. Her body was quickly engulfed by green ropes—but covering nothing of interest. If anything, they accentuated Rosalie’s curves, drawing attention to her nipples and pussy with their looping, clinging designs.

Then, a prospecting vine crawled between her legs and wiggled itself into Rosalie with no forewarning. A gasp escaped her lips and she slapped a hand to her crotch as she bent forward in surprise—but the invader was already well and in, exploring Rosalie’s insides. 

Zoey thought Rosalie would pull it out, but she didn’t. She only shivered and let the armor finish settling against—and into—herself. Eventually, the writhing stopped, all of the vines having situated themselves. Rosalie stood there, donning a looping mesh of plant life. Even having ‘settled’, they moved here and there, shifting—a living organism that had taken residence across Rosalie’s body.

“It’s moving around inside me,” she groaned, her hips wiggling side to side. “I’m supposed to just … deal with that?”

“I believe in you,” Delta grinned. “Come on now, next item. Chop chop.”

The vine wiggled, and another gasp. But Rosalie seemed determined to handle her perverted task with stalwartness; she ignored it, and bent down to keep withdrawing objects from the green-banded chest, even as her insides squirmed around with living vines.

[Ink of Empowering Degradation]: Rare. Scrawl onto skin. Effects amplify with size, location, and content of markings. 

“Oh,” Delta said. “That’s a funny one.”

“It wants us to write … degrading stuff?” Zoey asked. 

“Is it permanent?” Rosalie frowned at the ink-bottle and quill. “Surely not.”

“Doubt it,” Delta said. “But long-lasting, at a guess. Let’s test it out.”

“Without identification?” Rosalie said disapprovingly.

“Sure. Live a little.”

“That’s risky. What if it is permanent? Better to have it identified.”

“Delving life is risky,” Delta said, rolling her eyes. “Besides. Only person seeing your body is me and Zoey, isn’t it? So even if it is … it’s fine. We’ll get it fixed at town. No way it’s permanent, permanent—something a mage couldn’t fix.”

Rosalie cleared her throat. “We don’t need it, though. We’re handling the shard fine.”

“Makes it easier. And, dunno, blondie, this shard hasn’t been a cakewalk. Not the hardest I’ve been through, but you should know all it takes is a single slip-up. Should be using every advantage we have.” A second later, “Plus, I’m betting any shard with Zoey in it is only going to let perverted armor and items be used. Like your vine armor. And this ink. So we need to get used to it.”

Rosalie frowned down at the item. It was clear she agreed with Delta’s appraisal. “But … what should we write?”

“We should be mean about it,” Delta said, a grin splitting her lips. “Says the content makes it a stronger effect. So I write yours, you write mine, and the Zoey’s will write each other’s.”

“Feel like you’re implying we’ll be rude to each other,” Not-Zoey said. It’d been a while since she’d chimed in; she’d been quiet through most of the trip. Zoey, again, felt bad about her undoubtedly feeling like an outsider. She knew herself well enough to know that was what was happening.

“Yeah. That’s the plan,” Delta said. “You two can dig into your insecurities, can’t you? Knowing each other, and everything. Means a stronger effect.”

“I get to write yours?” Rosalie asked. She was clearly pleased with the idea. Then she paused, realizing the second half. “You get to write mine.”

“Deal?”

Rosalie hesitated, then said, “Deal.”

Delta didn’t seem dissuaded in the slightest at Rosalie’s quick acceptance; in fact, she seemed excited that Rosalie had a particularly rude, or degrading, concept of what she wanted to write. “Remember. Size, location, and content. Pretty sure it should go above our pussy, on our face, or across our tits.” She paused. “Or ass. Those are obviously the best choices.”

“And make them large,” Zoey said. 

Rosalie crossed her arms. “Oh, I will.”

“Who’s going first?” Delta asked.

“Me,” Rosalie said immediately. She uncapped the bottle and dipped the pen into the ink.

 

[ A/N: I realize I’ve had some problems with actually letting these items see use … but I promise that’s not permanent. Next story arc (after this shard) will be slower paced, and we’ll get to explore the concepts already introduced—items, relationships (dates!), and stuff like spellcasting & alchemy. There just feels like so much to write about that the smaller things got pushed further and further down the line. This will be fixed. The cock-ring will see its day! ]