“Well,” Mia said, after a brief, blushing pause between the two of them. “You certainly like to take charge, don’t you?”

Hazel flushed. Again, she hadn’t been a particularly assertive girl in her old life, but something about Mia simply drew the behavior out of her. How couldn’t she dominate the cute, blushing demon girl? It simply needed to be done.

“Are you okay?” Hazel asked.

As expected of a realistic cock, Hazel had gone soft after finishing so thoroughly in Mia’s mouth. It sat between her thighs, shrunken down and still wet with saliva and cum. She would have to use [Shapeshift] to get rid of the tool. For now, she let it stay.

“Am I okay?” Mia repeated. “Let’s see, I just had my throat violated by eight inches of slime girl cock. I also have about two buckets of your cum sloshing around in my stomach. Am I okay?”

Mia tilted her head.

“Better than okay,” Mia said, her lips curling up. She placed a hand on her stomach, then shivered. “I didn’t ever imagine it would be so, so—“

She cut herself off, then shook her head.

“Ecstasy,” Mia said firmly, as if fighting away whatever her other thought had been. “I have what I need. We can go help that woman, now.”

Hazel kind of wanted to know how Mia would have finished the statement, but figured now wasn’t the time. Mia seemed determined to treat the situation as inconsequential—or ‘professional’, even when it was obvious that it wasn’t.

A part of her wanted to reciprocate, to help Mia get off too. It felt kind of selfish to have used Mia’s throat like that, then not return the favor. But it seemed to be how Mia preferred the interaction; she was already trying to move on.

Maybe the succubus needed time to digest the situation. Hazel wouldn’t press, but she did intend to return the favor at some point. The only reason she didn’t now was because Mia made it clear she wanted to get a move on.

Mia shakily got to her feet, then turned toward the cavern entrance. Her determination to be on with their previous goal without even talking about what had happened left Hazel a bit confused. But she said nothing; she stood and followed after the succubus.

Despite having just emptied herself into Mia’s stomach, Hazel couldn’t help but steal a glance at the way Mia’s ass peeked out from her skirt. Mia didn’t glare backward at her, but instead perked up, noticing like she always did. Hazel tore her eyes away to be polite. Though, Hazel was getting more and more the feeling that maybe Mia would have preferred if she didn’t. That the more Hazel ogled, the more Mia’s mood improved.

Seeing how they might be waking the stranger, Hazel used [Shapeshift] on the short trip back to remove her cock. It would be a rather unusual first meeting if she left that thing hanging there. That said, after how amazing using it on Mia had been, she planned to be experimenting with that new organ a lot more. A lot more. And hopefully with Mia.

Seeing how she needed Ecstasy, the odds of that seemed high. Hazel felt dizzy, remembering that. This would become a routine, wouldn’t it? Getting to use Mia to help the succubus refill on that secondary mana resource. Hazel was seriously a lucky girl.

What other abilities used Ecstasy that the succubus hadn’t told her about? Surely it wasn’t just her cleanse skill. How often would she need to restock?

Arriving back to the trapped woman, Hazel corralled her wandering excitement. She had more important things to focus on. Namely, saving a stranger’s life.

“How did this happen, anyway?” Hazel asked, looking at the woman plastered to the wall by black crystal. “Is there anything we need to worry about if we free her? The … corruption? Or something else?”

“I was wondering the same thing,” Mia said, sounding troubled. “I doubt she hung herself there, after all. I assume it was a monster—so we need to look for it returning. And the corruption, of course, is even more concerning.”

“At least she looks healthy.”

“She must not have been here long.”

“We can hope.”

“Either way, we should free her, then leave—preferably as quickly as possible.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“You already did your job,” Mia said.

Her job. As in, giving Mia Ecstasy by spurting out an enormous load of girl cum straight into her stomach. Hazel couldn’t help but feel like that hadn’t really been a ‘job’. Was that really the sum of her contribution when it came to this dilemma? She wasn’t complaining, not entirely—she just felt a bit useless on the grand scale. But that was how things were, for now.

“Okay,” Hazel said. “Stay safe. I’ll be ready to help.” She didn’t trust the ominous black crystal for a second.

Mia didn’t either, by the way she eyed the material. But a woman was trapped by the substance, and with a cleanse ability, of course Mia was going to do her best to help, potential repercussions or not.

Mia approached, getting within a few feet. She pointed her staff at the face of the unconscious prisoner, and the black wood of her weapon started to glow pink at the tip. Energy crackled around her, a slight gust picking up, as had happened with her charm ability. Finally, after a short channel, the energy gathering in strength, the spell activated.

A glowing pink orb floated softly out of the staff, meandering over to the woman, then sinking into her forehead without a sound. The stranger glowed for a second, motes of pink floating away, and Hazel waited, holding her breath.

The black crystal shattered. In a mere second, the entire construct splintered into a thousand shards, flying away and pattering onto the ground in a rain of rock—and releasing its hold on its prisoner.

The woman fell from the wall, and Mia stepped hurriedly forward to catch her.

To both Mia’s and Hazel’s surprise, the woman didn’t stay unconscious. Green eyes flickered open as she fell, shockingly aware—if confused—in an instant. Faster than Hazel or even Mia could react, the woman grabbed Mia, grunted, then, with an impressively empowered acrobatic twist, flung Mia sideways, then found her footing, landing in a crouch. The succubus went tumbling across the stone floor, her staff disarmed and clattering away.

Hazel had a brief moment to recognize that she was being charged before the tan-skinned woman hit hard, tackling her. Hazel hit hard, her breath stolen from her as she was slammed with obscene strength into the floor. The tanned woman straddled Hazel, perched on her lap with her fist raised, about to crash down—and if she could throw Mia around like that, Hazel knew how devastating the blow would be. Hazel closed her eyes and braced—an embarrassing instinct.

The woman hesitated, Hazel’s defensive, nearly passive response making her pause.

A giant pink crystal slammed into her with enough force to throw the woman away. She had used the element of surprise and her impressive physical momentum to gain an advantage against Mia, but Mia’s spellcasting abilities weren’t impotent—she was tossed away as easily as Mia herself had been.

“Leave her alone,” Mia growled, sounding more upset at the woman tackling Hazel than having been thrown across the cavern herself. “And calm down. We’re friends. Or are you compromised, somehow?”

‘We’re friends’ wasn’t the most convincing statement when delivered after blasting magic into the woman, but staggering to her feet, the brown-haired woman rubbed the side of her head and looked around. She didn’t seem injured or even bothered at having been tossed—as Mia didn’t either. The woman’s eyes flicked across their surroundings with practiced efficiency, pausing at Mia, but ultimately landing on Hazel.

“The hell?” she said. She turned to Mia. “Is that a slime? A charmed one? Yours?”

Hazel supposed that was the fair assumption.

Hazel climbed to her feet, sore from being slammed into the ground. The tackle had been delivered with immense strength—to a degree even her strong, impact-resistant body ached from it. She didn’t want to know what a punch from her would have felt like. If she had to guess, this mysterious new arrival was as high level as Mia, if not more so. Or maybe she had an exceptionally strength-focused class. Her toned, muscled body did suggest that. She had thighs that could crush a watermelon between them—which Hazel recognized as wildly inappropriate to note at that exact moment, but which she noted nonetheless.

“Who are you?” Mia demanded. “And what happened?” She pointed at the remnant clumps of black crystal. “I dispelled the affliction. Do you remember how you got here?”

Still disoriented, the woman considered Mia, then the shattered crystal with a furrowed brow. It was twice impressive that her instincts had blasted her straight into combat, ready to fight even while completely confused and just waking from some kind of affliction-forced unconsciousness. Hazel didn’t fully begrudge that they’d been attacked, and neither did Mia. Though that didn’t mean Hazel didn’t ache. She’d been pinned to the ground hard.

And why did being manhandled in that way have her heart slamming? Not from adrenaline.

“I … yeah, kind of,” the woman said. “I think I lost to … a giant [Hexspinner]. Infested with that same black crystal. It brought me here, I think?”

“Hexspinner? That’s a monster? I haven’t heard of it.”

“Yeah.”

“And it hung you there.”

“I guess?”

Mia considered her for a moment, probably appraising whether the mentioned ‘corruption’ had done something to her. The initial assault had worried Hazel, but it seemed that was just the woman’s brash reaction to waking to strangers.

Eventually, after the two women stared at each other, Mia looked at the broken crystal, then said, “We should probably be leaving, then. We don’t want to be here when it returns.”

The woman paused, then paled. “Yeah. We probably shouldn’t be.”

They fled the cavern. Fortunately, nothing pursued. Whatever had captured the woman was out hunting again—though what its purpose had been plastering the woman to the wall, Hazel had no idea.

When they’d gotten a good distance away, they came to a stop.

“Okay,” Mia said. “Now, explain.”

“Who are you?” the woman asked. “I don’t recognize you. You from Northwick Haven?”

“Sort of. I arrived a few weeks ago. But I’ve been down in the dungeon for most of that.”

“You have?”

Mia’s expression soured. “I fell into a trap that had me lost for more than a week. Thankfully not anywhere dangerous—but it’s been highly irritating nonetheless.” Mia paused. “Also, I’m Mia.”

“Ash. And, well, shit.” Ash looked around the cave tunnel. “Thanks for saving me. Sorry about—well, tossing you around. I was kind of out of it.”

“Understandable. I should’ve been ready.”

“Even so.”

“Do I get a sorry?” Hazel asked dryly, her first entry into the conversation; Mia and Ash had monopolized it.

Ash startled, then spun to face Hazel. Amusingly, she dropped into a combat stance, her fists coming up.

“Please, not again,” Hazel said dryly.

“She speaks?”

“Her name is Hazel,” Mia said. “And yes, she speaks. And deserves an apology, too.”

“An apology?”

“You attacked her, the same as me.”

“Well—but she’s a charmed monster, isn’t she?”

“No,” Mia said. “She’s just a talking slime.”

“A talking slime?” Ash asked incredulously.

“Don’t be dramatic,” Mia said. “Yes, a talking slime. It’s hardly the oddest thing to happen.” She shrugged. “It’s the dungeon.”

Ash gaped at the succubus, then at Hazel, then at Mia again. She dropped out of her combat stance, then rubbed her forehead. “Uh. Okay. Talking slime. Sure.” She faced Hazel. “Sorry about that. Like I said, I was disoriented.” Her brow furrowed, as if remembering something. “And, hey, where’d my sword go?”

“Your sword?”

“Hardly came down here empty-handed.”

“Hm,” Mia said. “Well, as I’m sure you noted, there wasn’t anything in that cavern. And we haven’t bumped into it either, so no. I suppose it’s gone.”

Ash didn’t seem happy about that. “Shit. I just got that thing.” She looked around at the dungeon. “Not to mention I’m weaponless, now.”

“You kept your armor, at least.”

Ash grunted. “Most of it’s garbage. Would’ve traded it all for my sword. Fuck, that sucks.”

“You’re alive. That’s all that matters.”

“Can’t argue that.”

“So, what are you?” Mia asked. “Warrior of some kind, I take it?”

“[Sunderer]. Damage-dealing debuffer. Not quite durable enough to hold the frontline myself, but in a pinch, I can.” She frowned. “Speaking of, where’s your team?”

“Where’s your team?” Mia countered.

“Nobody wanted to join me on a suicide mission. What’s your excuse?”

Mia paused at the too-casual explanation. “Uh. I do well solo. And I wanted to get a feel for the local dungeon. I didn’t intend on delving too deeply. What do you mean, ‘suicide mission’?”

Ash’s expression darkened. “I’m down here looking for my brother.”

“Oh. He went missing?”

“No shit.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Has something to do with all this black crystal stuff,” Ash said. “I’m sure of it. Though exactly how, I don’t know.”

They were silent for a few moments. Mia chewed her lip, then changed topics. “Do you have a map module?”

“I do,” Ash said.

“So you know your way back to the surface?”

“It’d be a hike,” Ash said. “But yes.” She raised a hand before Mia could continue. “But I’m down here to find my brother. So no, I’m not guiding you.”

“You’re going to continue?” Mia asked incredulously. “You nearly died. And now you’re weaponless.”

“He’s already been gone too long,” Ash said. “I can’t afford to regroup. If it’s not too late already, it sure as hell will be if I have to retreat and come back later.”

“You’ll die.”

“Then I’ll die.” Ash shrugged. “He’s my brother. I’m not giving up on him.”

Mia turned a concerned look to Hazel. Hazel hardly had any insight to add to the situation—it was horrible all around.

She predicted Mia’s response before it came, though.

“Fine,” Mia said. “We’ll help you. In exchange, you’ll lead us back to the surface.”

“You … will?”

The confusion was for an obvious reason. The reward Mia had requested was too paltry. Throwing their lot in with Ash in exchange for her guiding them to the surface. They could surely manage that by themselves, just slower.

Hazel, who knew Mia, knew what was going on. The succubus was looking for an excuse to help Ash. The selflessness hardly extended to Hazel only.

“Though, I can’t speak for my companion,” Mia said. Red eyes flicked to Hazel.

Hazel was more torn on the situation. She sympathized with Ash’s situation, but throwing herself into grave danger for a stranger? Hazel liked to think she was a good person, but she wasn’t some saint. Like Mia apparently was. How ironic was that? That a literal demon was willing to risk her life at the drop of a hat? And not just for her, but Ash, too. Strangers.

But while Hazel might be slightly more dubious about the situation, she was obviously sticking with Mia.

Besides, she’d been moved through worlds and given a powerful class—the ability to help people and change the world for the better, possibly. She couldn’t just squander that opportunity. Again, she was no saint, but having literally stumbled into a second life, she wanted to use it right.

But frankly, she could admit, Mia was the bigger reason. Mia had made her mind up and would try to help Ash. So, Hazel would join them.

“I’ll come too,” Hazel said, though only after thinking it over. “But you should probably fill us in.”