4.40 – Ana I

The downsides of Ana's new weapon became apparent rather quickly.

Not her metaphorical new weapon, but her literal one, drawn from the most recent loot chest. She'd known walking around with a plug of metal inside her would pose more than a few difficulties, but even the short trip to the next hallway door emphasized just how much so.

Ana was a mage, and so the buttplug's effect on her physical coordination wouldn't matter much, but the mental distraction would. The sensation of a thick plug stirring around inside her with each step meant staying focused was going to be a challenge in both the immediate future, and her foreseeable delving career, so long as the gemstone accessory stayed her best available weapon.

Ana wouldn't call herself the most distractible woman, finding it quite easy to focus on the task at hand, but the particular concoction of distractions she was faced with overruled her natural proclivities: her new cock, Natalie's nakedness, and a thick new buttplug meant that she wasn't particularly paying attention to her surroundings as Natalie swung open the door, headed for the next intermediary hallway to the series of challenge rooms. Ana's cock stood proudly at attention, twitching, feeling hot, and bobbing side to side with her movements. The thick, pulsing member was still disorienting; she had far from gotten used to it. Ana didn't think that would change any time soon, especially with constant stimulation. She'd barely been managing to keep the thing under control even before having her ass plugged.

She just hoped that during combat the sensation would be easier to ignore. That was the one thing that would make her retire the weapon—if it proved itself impractical.

Even as she and Natalie advanced to the next hallway, Ana idly tested the plug's mana-storage capabilities. It was as seamless to activate as she hoped. A simple thought filled the gem, and just as easily, she could withdraw the stored mana, returning it to her natural mana pool. She'd been worried that moving that enigmatic power around would come with downsides—difficulty, or perhaps conversion losses—but that didn't seem to be the case.

The storage size was impressive even at the plug's base tier, too: almost half of Ana's entire pool. That was a phenomenal boon to take into any given fight. A fifty percent bonus to her mana was genuinely an unbelievable level-two tool, and it more than made up for the distracting sensations associated with equipping it. And while the plug didn't provide a means to regenerate mana faster, and so over the course of a long dungeon run, its usefulness waned, being able to recharge fully and enter a boss fight—or any other important encounter—with so much more starting mana was incredible.

Ana intended to make good use of the [Expanding Nexus Gem]. Inserting it had been challenging to begin with, though, and so progress might not come quickly. She wasn't sure just how large the accessory would grow, but if Ana had to guess, fairly large. The good news was that walking around with it stretching out her ass out all day ought to be good training—it shouldn't be too long before she was accustomed to taking an impressive amount of metal up her ass.

Which wasn't a delving proficiency Ana had ever thought she would acquire, but these were strange times.

Perhaps, even, she should wear it around campus. She would have to come up with explanations for where her weapon had gone, and learning to not walk suspiciously could be a problem too. But she would handle that when she got to it. Plus, the requirement to have a teammate insert the gem was its own roadblock. It was only fair such an amazing piece of equipment came with burdensome downsides. Ana was still quite pleased with the item.

Before swinging open the door and entering the next hallway, Natalie glanced back at her. Her eyes flicked down to Ana's cock, though quickly, like she hadn't meant to. Her cheeks colored, and she looked back forward. Ana didn't comment, though her skin tingled at being so obviously admired.

Despite all the absurdity of the past hour, Natalie stayed aware of the potential for danger. She peeked through the door cautiously, scouting for enemies or traps. Ana had expected the upcoming hallway to be the same as the previous two, but by how Natalie paused, Ana knew something was up.

"What is it?"

"There's a mirror."

"There is?"

"Near the ladder." Natalie frowned at whatever she could see inside the hallway—Ana kept a safe distance. "It doesn't look dangerous, but we should be ready for something."

Ana pushed aside her previous musings, and the awkwardness and excitement of her and Natalie's lewd adventures and loot. Once again, they were dealing with the dungeon proper, and a lack of focus could mean injury or death. It was more than a bit jarring having to swap between the two vastly different contexts, but they didn't have much choice. And in an odd way, the contrast highlighted the events, made them more potent for their strangeness.

Ana followed after Natalie. As Natalie had said, there was a mirror to the right of the exit ladder, though the joining hallway was otherwise the same as the earlier ones. Ana scanned the walls, floor, and ceiling, looking for traps, but found nothing.

They approached the mirror cautiously. After their last encounter with a mirror throwing them into this trap to begin with, and the boss utilizing them as a key mechanic, Ana chose to have an abundance of wariness—as did Natalie.

"It's … not a mirror?" Natalie said. "Just glass. It's not reflecting anything. I can see through it."

Natalie held her hammer up, prepping herself for something that might fling itself through—since that was how the last boss fight had gone. Ana didn't find that likely, though. The hallways seemed to be safe zones. Something else was up.

They finished approaching the suspicious furnishing. Natalie's muscles tensed, being the first to arrive, with Ana keeping a safe distance, as any mage should. Natalie got a full vantage of what was inside the mirror, and her eyes widened. Ana, out of curiosity, edged in too, wanting to see.

Inside the mirror, a form became visible. White-haired, in full delving gear, and with a rapier at her hip, the sight was familiar, though highly unexpected.

"Sofia?" Natalie exclaimed.

"Ana?" Sofia's reply came, just as surprised. More so, even, probably because they were naked—not something Sofia had expected to see.

Ana finished coming to Natalie's side, assuming by this point that a monster wouldn't come hurling through the mirror. Their team's white-haired rapier-wielding fighter stood there—staring at them with wide eyes, a blush quickly growing on her cheeks. Sofia looked relieved despite her embarrassment, though. Ana covered herself up with her arms and hands, following Natalie's lead. She wasn't nearly as perturbed by nakedness as most people—whether it was her own or others'—but that didn't mean she wouldn't follow basic rules for modesty. Even if it felt like it was becoming rather pointless, considering Natalie's class.

"And Nat," Sofia said, eyes turning to her next. "You're fine too. That's good." She sounded relieved—Ana supposed disappearing into a trap was something worth worrying about.

"Jordan?" a new voice interjected. "Did you found something?"

Ana paused. It was Jordan's voice who had asked the question—something that made Ana instantly suspicious of what was going on.

"Who are you talking to?" Jordan's voice continued from out of sight. The dark-haired rogue arrived at Sofia's shoulder a moment later. Liz, the last unaccounted-for member of their party, also joined them, crowding around the mirror.

"It's them," Sofia answered Jordan. "The mirrors are linked, I guess?" Sofia frowned at Natalie and Ana. "And why are you two naked?" The white-haired girl studied Ana, as if sensing something was off. If Ana had to guess, she and Natalie were easy to tell apart, even if they were in each other's bodies. Natalie was much more expressive than Ana, and she looked plainly relieved to see the rest of the party. Ana, on her part, kept her usual neutral mask, which had to look out of place while wearing Natalie's face.

"Actually, that's a dumb question," Sofia said. "Let me guess, something to do with Natalie's class."

Ana could also sense that something was off with the three women crowded around the mirror. Sofia, Jordan, and Liz's mannerisms were all wrong, in a hard-to-place but nonetheless obvious way. Joined with the earlier hint—Jordan calling Sofia by her own name—Ana suspected what was going on. And Sofia confirmed the theory in short order.

"Oh, and I'm not Sofia," Sofia said. "She is." Sofia—or, correctly put, Jordan in Sofia's body—gestured at Liz. "And that's Liz." She pointed at Jordan. Sofia frowned, her eyes flicking between Ana and Natalie. "You two also swapped, didn't you?"