Ch9: Cleaning Herself Up
“Well... That was an... experience.” Krvavy mutters to herself as she lies back on the uncomfortable stone ground. “Why did it feel so damn good?! I’ve never... Damn developers!” she shouts in frustration.
With a bit of a huff, she carefully gets back up onto her feet. Feeling slightly sore, Krvavy opens up her status sheet. Just as she expected, nothing has changed except for her health and stamina. The fall seems to have done six points of damage, and that whole experience drained over eighty stamina.
Dismissing the sheet, Krvavy looks down at her body and the mess of cum covering her. It is definitely much more than a normal person would have produced, though it only seems to be a bit more than normal for porn. Though there is nothing normal about this situation...
“Great... I’m basically playing a porn game, aren’t I? To think that I was better than that...” she heavily sighs out, “Now, I’d better get cleaned up before it dries onto me. Or before start dripping this stuff all over the place.”
Immediately, she turns to her small natural fountain spring. She could clean herself using that. But it’d be like using a sink to have a shower. Not something that she is a stranger to, but also not her first choice in getting cleaned up. The fountain has a small waterfall, which leads to a little stream of water that flows along the edge of her cave, all the way out past the campfire.
That water has to lead to somewhere. Maybe it connects to a larger river? Even if it is cold, she would like to bathe herself completely rather than just splashing and wiping water onto her body.
And so, mind made up, Krvavy follows the small stream. She decides to leave her little bit of gear here for now, as she doesn’t want to risk making a mess while gathering it up. Besides, she is just going to wash up and can come back for them once she is done that.
Following the stream for about a dozen steps into what is essentially a dim hallway, she is suddenly met with a sharp turn to the left. Ahead of her is an odd blur in the air. It is almost like she is looking through a transparent wall of rock...
It must be some sort of illusion or barrier. After all, this cave is supposedly bound to her soul so that only she can enter it. Guess making it look like there isn’t a cave is an easy way of keeping NPC’s out of it.
Exiting through the illusionary wall, Krvavy quickly discovers that she isn’t exactly outside. It would appear that she is on some sort of ledge or cliff with stone pillars along the edge. It kind of feels like a balcony or a porch, oddly enough. The thin stream of water flows to the nearest edge and pours off into the depths below.
But what really catches Krvavy’s attention is the view of what is beyond this cliff balcony.
It is a cave. Not a boring dark and dank cave like the one she was just in though. No, this is something that, quite fittingly, looks straight out of a fantasy setting. It is teeming with plants, mostly mosses and shrubberies but she can see a few trees scattered about as well. In the center of this cave is a large u-shaped lake with rivers flowing to and from it. That is where the small stream from her little respawn point leads to.
She isn’t the best at judging distances, and that isn’t helped by the fact that she is so much taller with this body. But it has to be at least a fifteen story drop from where she is to the cave floor. She has looked out of the windows of enough buildings even taller than this to guess as much. And the ground beneath the ledge looks like it is raised up higher than the rest that surrounds the lake...
Looking up, she sees that she is near the roof of the cave. Further out and scattered around the rough stone ceiling are various skylights. More or less. They are really just holes that pour light down into the grassy grotto below. Most of them seem to be above, or at least rather close to, the lake.
The light isn’t particularly bright, so it probably isn’t direct sunlight, but it is more than enough to illuminate this large cave. And it is more than enough to let her see that there are two more smaller lakes further down past the first one, and that the cave continues going down into the darkness beyond even them.
“Wow...” Krvavy is left speechless for a few moments, before shaking her head and clearing her thoughts. This is great view, there’s no questioning that, but she still needs to get cleaned up. Directly to her right is a narrow path along the cave wall that leads downwards.
With no other option, she follows the path. It is rather steep, though not so much that she is worried about loosing her footing. She also isn’t concerned by the big drop a few steps to her left, as just like the ledge she emerged out onto this slope has stone pillars along its edge. It kind of gives the feeling that she is in a tunnel, or a hallway with a bunch of inconsistently sized windows.
After a few short minutes of very careful walking Krvavy comes to another, larger, platform ledge. This one seems to jut out into the cave quite a bit. And as she enters onto it she sees the reason for that: it is at a corner, and there is even more cave to the right.
That part of the cavern looks different from the more plant-filled grotto behind her, as it is significantly darker. In fact, it is almost entirely shrouded in blackness if not for the little bit of light from the grotto section and the ever so faint shine from what appears to be another lake and some rivers. That section is much more like what she expects to see from a cave, as amongst the darkness she can make out far more pillars, stalagmites, and stalactites than before.
Pulling her eyes away from the view, Krvavy turns to continue following the path down. Though it has widened a bit, she is slightly concerned by the fact that it is heading into the dark section of the cave and not the light filled grotto.
But instead of going back to at least get her axe, she decides to continue on. She made a pretty tough character, and this is the starting area. If there is anything down there, then she’ll probably be able to handle it.
As she continues down the path it opens up even more, the pillars along its edge becoming sparser with more distance between them. The sound of running water also grows louder, and a quick look over the edge shows that, far down below, there is a river with waterfalls running alongside it, heading back towards the grotto.
The path ahead of her quickly grows harder to see. Not just because she is walking into a dark cave, but because there appears to be some mist lingering in her way. The sound of running water grows louder and louder with each step forwards.
Just as she enters into the pleasantly warm mist, Krvavy notices that the path splits. To her right is what looks like a gateway between a pillar that arches towards the wall. Peeking her head through the arch she sees a large pond of faintly glowing water, with steam rising from its bubbling surface. Beyond the pond is a cliff with streams of water flowing down to where the path must lead.
Krvavy smiles widely. “Nice! I’ve got some sort of hot spring right next to my spawn point! And it has some waterfalls I can use as a shower!”
With that she returns to the path and hastens down it, quickly making her way to the part beneath the pool. She immediately sticks a hand out into the first waterfall she sees, which is falling down from a height almost twice as tall as she is.
The water is hot, but not unpleasantly so. She has had showers far more scalding than this. Stepping into the soft deluge, she begins to rinse her body, running her hands up and down. The attention that she has to give her rod to get it cleaned up does cause it to stiffen back to full hardness, but Krvavy stubbornly refuses to touch it any more than is necessary.
Feeling nice and clean, Krvavy steps out of the warm waterfall and shakes herself dry. Her hair is pretty thick, but she is able to wring most of the water out of it. Now that she is only damp, rather than soaked, she suddenly has a thought: why is the water glowing?
Quickly turning back to the water, she focuses on it and tries to use Inspect on it.
Rejuvenating Spring Water: This water is infused with natural magics, causing it to glow slightly and giving it disinfecting properties. Slightly increases the Regeneration of Health, Stamina, and Mana when consumed or soaked in it.
“Whew...” Krvavy sighs in relief. She was worried that it might have been dangerous for a moment there. She really should have checked it first, but still. How lucky... Not only does she have a great hot spring area just for her, but it has magical water!
Smiling to herself, she looks off deeper into the steamy cave. From the looks of it there are a whole bunch more of these hot spring ponds down the path that she has to follow. And maybe that lake she saw in the middle is a big hot spring too? That would be fun! Being able to swim in a massive, nice and warm pool... Man, this is just great!
She should really go back and get her gear now though. It isn’t too far, and she’ll be able to finish drying off at her fire.
Mind made up, she turns and heads back.