1.50 – Potion

None needed, probably. Sex zombos continue

Their pace slowed to fast walk after they got far enough away from the guards and horde. A chemical smell came and went with the wind. The closer they drew to Shari's, the poorer the buildings became. Glass windows to break were less and less common.

Thera's behavior bugged Maple. No normal person was this horny—besides herself. She couldn't get it out of her head that this whole event might be her fault, so in an attempt to ease that fear, she turned to the woman.

"Hey Thera, did you happen to drink any milk today? From the city."

Dort spoke up for her from behind. His shiny helm bounced on his head as he moved his legs faster than the rest of them to keep up.

"Aye, she did, milk and more. We about raided an abandoned stall when we got in. Our supplies had run low, so we were all a little peckish. We left some coin, mind you."

"Oh. Did you all drink milk?"

"Nah, just me. Why the sudden milk interest?"

Thera glanced curiously at Maple. Unfortunately, that answered nothing. The other human might just always be horny. She'd thought that even the previous time they'd met. Maybe one of her team could say whether or not today was more than usual, but Maple didn't want to arouse suspicion.

"No reason, just curious. Um, you know the milk here comes from people, right?"

Dort groaned and took a drink from his waterskin before replying.

"You're one of them types, are ya? Listen, whether it comes from a filthy animal or a filthy person—milk is milk. Now, when it comes from a stone or flower, that's when it differs."

"I guess so..."

Maple didn't feel too strongly about it anymore, but it was a convenient excuse. Coming off as a weird anti-milk person wasn't much better though, so she looked around for a topic change.

"Anyway...That's a pretty big, uh, sword you have there."

"Yep! It's meant for two, you see?"

Thera indicated the heads on either end. Maple intended the statement to be lightly teasing, but she carried it proud. No shame at all.

"Ah. That's, um, useful."

"You'd think so, right? Have you ever used something like it? I haven't had a chance to yet..."

Maple could give her that chance. The way she said it, as an embarrassing forlorn admission, made Maple want to reassure her.

"Oh, nah, I haven't. I have a Skill that lets me, uh, it turns my—I have a Skill that can do similar..."

The words formed faster than her thoughts. She tried to quickly think of something else to talk about, but even Alas, who had looked disinterested by the conversation until now, was curious.

"A Skill that does what, exactly?"

Maple grimaced and prayed another pervert to deal with would show up to distract everyone. Emma grinned to her left. She'd brought this one on herself.

"It grows a, you-know..."

After parsing that, Thera squealed and lamented her fate. Alas dropped back out of the conversation, curiosity satiated.

"What?! Why do you get all the good Skills? Hey, wanna be a [Blade Captain]? Let's trade."

"Is that actually possible?"

Maple took the offer seriously because if she could trade...

She wouldn't do it, actually. Not for a combat class. She didn't want to fight. Video game world it may seem—she was there. It was real, and getting hit hurt.

And, just maybe, her Skills were kind of cool on their own. She'd want something of equal value, at least. Not that [Blade Captain] sounded low-tier, it just wasn't for her.

"Trading classes? Nah, I was kidding. Unless you have an artifact or thousands of gold to throw around, but..."

Her tone was that of explaining an obvious joke, but it didn't sound entirely impossible. If you were rich.

"Put a good helm on her and we wouldn't know the difference, aye?"

Dort rapped his knuckles against his own helm, getting a grunted chuckle from Alas, and a silky giggle from Sylla. Emma laughed with them, but locked an elbow around Maple's.

Maple and Thera were less amused, but Shari's shop was in view. Its wooden doors were shut, and the building appeared intact. Glass littered the street, though there were no windows around, broken or not.

"This is it. I hope she's there..."

Azure Bond took up point behind Maple, and she approached the door. She knocked three times, waited half a minute, and before she could knock again—

"What you want? No sex here. Go away, or taste Shari's Long Time Burning Pain."

The goblin's head popped out of a vent above the door. She held a glass vial in a clawed hand, arm cocked back to throw. Maple jumped in surprise, Emma jiggling on her arm.

"No, wait—it's me. I commissioned some potions last week..."

"Oh, girl with too much horny problem. Whole city with problem now. Who this?"

Shari gestured to the others, and Maple heard the distinct laugh of a gnoll come from inside. Was a little confidentiality too much to ask for? Maple sighed.

"This is Emma, um, my girlfriend. And these are—"

"Thera, captain of Azure Bond, C-rank adventurers. Currently taking requests of all kinds. Ask for us if you're ever in need."

Thera put on her best grin, and Shari kept her arm cocked back.

"Shari has enough trouble, no need adventurers making more."

"Fair, fair. If you ever do, though...Azure Bond."

Thera kept her smile, and whispered her team's name in a hypnotizing way. Shari ignored her.

"Why tree girl here? No see calamity? No see sign? Come back tomorrow."

She pointed to the 'Closed' sign hanging on the door and started to pull her head back inside. Maple waved her arms.

"Wait! I'm here for the potions I commissioned. Are they done?"

"Mm. Tree girl use Shari like bank, store potion day after day until Shari grow old and shop full."

Shari broke eye contact before continuing.

"Made three, only one left. Shari hole up with floppy sausage gnoll and defend shop. No refund. Ingredients expensive. Tree girl should have come sooner, hm?"

A tinge of guilt mixed into her unwavering tone, yet unwavering it was and her eyes dared Maple to object. Thera scratched the back of her head.

"Well that's a shame. We should keep moving and find somewhere to ride this out."

Shari grunted and retreated back inside. That settled it, for everyone except Maple. She knocked on the door again and spoke louder.

"Wait—Shari. I think I can help fix all this. Can you let us in?"

Dort raised his own voice from Maple's side.

"Now that's a horde. Got a limit to that Skill, girlie?"

Maple turned and saw the massive crowd of perverts ambling toward them and overflowing down side streets. They filled the entire width of street and were more densely-packed than any prior group.

A woman in front looked familiar. Maple realized she'd already used her Skill on her once before. The refractory period wasn't permanent.

"I haven't found a limit yet. Here. [Enhanced Pleasure You and Me]."

Maple activated it on everyone she could see. Nothing seemed to happen. Then, to her horror, she realized they were moving faster; immune, or even empowered by her Skill now.

"Oh, jeez. Shari—open up please! There's a lot of them!"

A few in the horde had clearly spotted them, but most hadn't yet. No answer came from inside Shari's shop. Thera grabbed Maple's wrist and was about to drag her away if she had to, when Shari's door slammed open.

They filed into the single-room shop. Sylla slithered in last and Shari shut and barred the door behind her. Most of the floor was taken up by two empty shelves in the center of the room and the counter at the back. There was hardly room for all of them to stand.

Piled against the walls and corners were dusty bins full of...junk, to Maple. A ladder near the back counter took up space of its own and led to a goblin-sized loft above; where Shari must have been to poke her head outside.

Behind the counter sat a gnoll, firmly settled into one of but two chairs in the room. He nodded to the newcomers with boredom, having clearly resigned to having a bad day hours ago.

Yet he had his chair, and none would take it from him. The other chair would, of course, be claimed by its rightful owner. Shari. He had his, and woe be to the newcomers. How long might they be forced to stand before the disaster ended and they could leave?

Alas took it all in and remarked dryly.

"Quaint."

"You break, you buy. Hmph. Treat Shari's like inn now, too."

Emma grinned and waved to Shari with one of her pre-written messages.

Hi, I'm Emma. I'm a soap slime.

"Hm. Slippery devil who make tree girl too horny, yes? Shari have potion, fix that."

Dort choked on a drink he'd been taking, and Emma laughed and nodded. Maple's face felt hot, but even she would admit it was kind of funny. Thera crossed her arms.

"Wish I had that problem."

Maple watched Shari go behind the counter to dig up her potion. Emma followed her halfway to greet the gnoll, but flipped to a different page for him.

"Hrr. Hello there—"

He'd laughed too just now, but whatever Emma wrote made his ears go flat and his voice cut off. When Emma came back over, Maple asked what it was.

Hello floppy sausage gnoll. I'm Emma.

"Nice one."

Maple chuckled and Emma beamed. The gnoll looked away from Maple. She wouldn't normally laugh about such things, but fair's fair.

Sylla spoke up, abashed. She'd been slithering circles around one of the shelves trying to find enough space to coil up, or just not have her snake-half spread throughout the room, but there was none.

"Um, Shari. Do you mind if I move this shelf? Sorry..."

"Shari's shop not big enough for shy magic serpent, hm. Move things if it help. Might be here long time."

Sylla mumbled thanks and got to clearing a space for herself. Shari returned to Maple with a bottle of dark purple liquid. Her hand looked so small wrapped around it, and Maple noticed her arm shaking a little. Was she nervous?

With six much larger species than her, and one dwarf, crowded into her shop, and a horde of perverts outside? Okay, she could see it.

"Here anti-horny potion. Dose is one sip. Three silver each, you want future batches."

"Thank you, Shari. Sorry about the uh, timing..."

The shop was small enough for everyone to hear everything, so Alas spoke while helping Sylla move a shelf to a wall.

"That's not a bad price. Maybe we should get some of those, for a certain someone."

"Slip it into her drink when she's not looking, aye."

"Don't you dare. I'm not that bad."

Maple paid their banter only half a mind. She was sniffing the potion, and thinking. Truthfully, she could use a dose now, but she wasn't sure if even all of it would be enough for her plan. She'd hoped there'd be more.

Did she even want to go through with that plan? The risk was high, and whatever this event was likely had nothing to do with her. It would just solve itself on its own eventually, right?

But the people in that last horde looked worse than they had before, and the guards were using violence to deal with it. If she could help...

"So, what's this grand plan of yours?"

Thera slapped an arm around Maple's shoulders, jostling her and almost spilling the potion. Every eye turned toward Maple and waited to hear.