Natalie stepped through the glassy black portal, and the busy noises of Aradon's dungeon entrance dropped away. Her team followed after, one by one, appearing in the small stone room that made up the floor selection chamber. As usual, only two portals presented themselves: the first and the second floor. They'd yet to head down to the third.

"Today's the day we find Nat a proper boss to fuck," Jordan mused loudly—attracting four heads to swivel her way. "It's a shame all we've been finding are actual monsters. Where are the fuckable ones when you need them?"

"You," Sofia grumbled, "are growing entirely too crude."

"Crude? I'm being practical," Jordan disagreed. "That erotite arrow is a two-part rare reward—we're gonna get something amazing once we find Nat proper prey. If only that dryad had come later. She looked cute. What do you think dryad pussy is like?"

Sofia shook her head, exasperated, and faced Ana. Natalie's amusement lingered on Jordan for a moment, who grinned at her—which Natalie responded to by rolling her eyes. Sofia was right, honestly. The woman really was becoming more and more of a provoker.

"You said you had something you wanted to talk about, once we got inside?" Sofia asked Ana.

Everyone's attention turned to the team's mage, who was slipping off her bra—which Natalie paused at. Though it was hardly anything new. Their team covered up during the trip over to the dungeon entrance. Even if they had to wear revealing attire while inside the dungeon, for the stat boosts, it still felt rather indiscreet to do so out in public. For that matter, Natalie herself had taken to wearing a skirt and jacket overtop her extremely revealing armor. She tucked both away, following Ana's lead.

"Yes," Ana said. "Just a quick announcement. And possibly a momentary interruption, before setting out. You remember the tattoo and ink vial, from earlier?"

"You mean the glowing pink womb tattoo everyone can see? That you wear out in public?" Sofia asked dryly. "Yes, we haven't forgotten about that, Ana."

It was true; Ana was definitely more shameless than Natalie, when it came to walking through Aradon's streets. At least she wore a bra, because when that thing came off, it was fifty-fifty odds whether slight movements would destroy her modesty. If it'd been anyone else, she'd have thought Ana was showing off. Since she did have a lot to show off. But no—Natalie was pretty sure she simply didn't care, which was equal parts impressive and hilarious.

"The [Inscriber] I commissioned had a breakthrough," Ana said, ignoring Sofia's sarcasm—maybe not even detecting it. "He managed to redesign the tattoo so it works differently from its original purpose. So that it's functional for us."

"Oh?" Natalie asked. "Functional how?"

"Before, it collected orgasms to unlock those doorways, if you remember," Ana said, and a brief heat flash went through Natalie, recollecting that whole series of events. "Now, it stores the same energy, but as a secondary mana resource. Not significant, but, of course, any increase in mana is an excellent boon. Especially when combined with my crystal ball."

'Crystal ball'. Ana had taken to calling her buttplug that. The team didn't really mind; dropping the word 'buttplug' into casual conversations could be … a little much. Even for their circumstances.

"It stores orgasms as mana," Sofia said, rubbing her temples. "You're serious?"

"Yes."

"Why am I not surprised?" Sofia asked, sounding almost angry.

"You figured that out fast," Natalie commented, impressed. She'd expected it to take longer to track down someone who could help her with the task of redesigning the tattoo. But Ana worked efficiently. It'd taken less than a week.

"And you said there might be a short diversion before we start today?" Liz asked hesitantly, a heat rising on her face. "By that, do you mean …?"

Natalie paused.

"The energy decays, so I didn't handle it beforehand," Ana said. "And the intensity of the orgasm also affects how much energy there is to draw on." She nodded. "So, yes, I waited until we were at the dungeon to ask."

Those statements sat in the air for a moment.

"You … want to handle it … now?" Sofia asked.

"It shouldn't take long," Ana said, as unperturbed as ever. "Especially if I have some help." She paused, then glanced Natalie's way. "If you don't mind. I suppose I shouldn't assume you would."

Natalie blinked.

"You want me to …?"

Help her fill the tattoo up?

Ana nodded.

"Like, here?" Natalie asked, looking around the small floor-selection chamber. "Now?"

Ana didn't seem to understand why everyone was either flushing, amused, or exasperated at the request. "As I said, it'll be quick. This is a reality of our situation, isn't it? Such breaks will be required, especially if we continue receiving similar items." She nodded at Liz. "Like Elizabeth's wand. That's a daily necessity, isn't it?"

Liz shared a look with Natalie, her cheeks going a shade darker. Natalie laughed. The two of them had, in fact, been making good use of her wand—they weren't going to leave stats on the table, not when exploring the dungeon.

Natalie had been very much enjoying those events, too. There was something strangely erotic about the quick, even perfunctory at times, nature of having to fuck Liz with her dildo to provide her the stat boost. And the linking process, too. Since it was needed every time they ventured out, it was something they 'just took care of', beforehand. Natalie didn't know why the 'get it over with' attitude Liz sometimes treated the event with turned her on, but it definitely did. Not that she ever seemed reluctant, just that they were busy people, and so Liz insisted Natalie work as hard as possible to have her squirming without wasting time.

Her current record was one minute and forty-five. She was pretty proud of that one.

"I can help if you need me to," Natalie said. "But it's, uh, a bit crowded in here, isn't it?"

Ana, again, nodded, unperturbed. "Yes. But that should just make finishing even easier, if everyone is watching us."

Sofia and Liz both made a sort of choking noise at that, and Jordan started laughing. Natalie's eyebrows went up.

"You want them to watch?"

"The idea makes me feel rather hot," Ana said. "So yes, it would speed things up. I don't want to waste our time. Of course, it's their choice, too."

"How can you say something like that? With a straight face?" Sofia demanded.

Ana looked at her blankly. "What do you mean?"

Jordan kept laughing.

Well. That sort of impassive analysis was very on-brand for Ana, but still, Natalie couldn't help but give her an odd look. She was strangely cognizant of her own thought processes, for being so clueless. Surely she knew why what she'd said was … a bit much. Even for her.

Then again, this was probably one of the situations where she was playing into her own cluelessness, intentionally. It was certainly working to fluster Sofia and Liz—though that wasn't a hard task.

"Well. I mean. If everyone's okay with it," Natalie said, "I guess it is just part of how the dungeon works for us, these days." Her heart rate sped up, despite the casualness she tried to portray. Sure, she'd been growing closer with all of her teammates, but helping bring Ana to orgasm in front of everyone else?

Sofia pinched her nose and turned away. "Just, hurry up," she said, waving her hand. "We're wasting exploration time."

Ana faced Natalie, looking at her expectantly.

Natalie's face heated up.

A good teammate did what a good teammate had to do, right?

Though … maybe Sofia could help out too. Join in. Her collar did need to be trained. They could kill two birds with one stone.