4.33 – Back to the Beginning

They set out from Treyhull within the hour.

Delta accepted their urgency with little explanation. They’d given her a promise that they’d fill her in during the trek, and she’d nodded, then hurried away to prepare.

Maddy, they left behind. Beyond not even being an official part of the team, Zoey didn’t think it smart to push for her recruitment yet. Especially not during a mission even stranger than usual, returning to an old, low level shard and rescuing a boss monster from some unknown threat. An unknown threat linked to a potentially world-ending danger.

The sex stuff was enough. Better to let Maddy get use to that idea first, before broaching the apocalypse.

Zoey sent a messenger to fill Sabina in on the change of plans. She didn’t like how their lessons were being interrupted, and without even getting to say bye in person, but the less delay before heading for Mel, the better. The slimegirl had said she would survive for a day or two, but each passing hour was ‘damaging’ her. So even if they could linger, they shouldn’t.

And so, their group of three set off with as much expeditiousness as reasonable.

They walked fast. As in, a pace Zoey would have struggled to make on flat concrete, back before her transmigration. Now, the noticeable boons of her skills and advancement meant she made long, swift strides across rugged terrain, and even doing so for an extended time, she didn’t find herself winded. She was still the slowest of the group, with Rosalie and Delta having physically-oriented classes, but they still made twice or better speed than their earlier trip.

While they walked—or walk-jogged, really—they filled Delta in.

The second time explaining such bizarre topics wasn’t any easier. Delta had more difficulty accepting them. Rosalie, at least, had been with Zoey since the beginning, and seemed generally more predisposed toward believing the incredible—maybe something to do with her past. Delta didn’t have those influencing factors.

Still, she didn’t outright call Zoey a liar. But by the time she’d gotten everything out, Zoey got the feeling she didn’t wholly believe the craziness, either. Somewhere in the middle. Halfway believing, halfway not. With luck, proof would be provided during this expedition of theirs.

As the hours ticked by and landscape shifted, fatigue creeped in, but stamina potions fended it off, as well as determination to make it to Mel with time to spare.

Evening arrived, then twilight, then dusk, and they kept walking. A few monsters slowed them down, but only briefly. The violent creatures were weaker outside of shards, and their squad much stronger than a typical one.

They set up camp deep into the night and woke before the sun rose. They would’ve hiked straight through, but they didn’t know what awaited them at Mel’s shard, and being exhausted—from lack of sleep more than physically so—could be unwise. A satiating eight-hours was obviously off the table, but four or five put them in good enough condition to feel comfortable tackling the shard, which they arrived to after another several hours of trailblazing.

Without ceremony, because there wasn’t much to say, they dove into the inky black portal.

***

Thankfully, that same entrance coffin she and Rosalie had first been trapped in had been cleaned out for their re-entry. Not so thankfully, it had been fully reconstructed, too. And instead of two girls being crammed in the space, there was three.

Then again … being smooshed in by two naked girls—yes, the shard had taken their armor again—was hardly some fate worth lamenting.

“This again?” Rosalie growled. “Of course. What did I expect?”

“The hell?” Delta asked, shuffling around, bumping all of them together. “Where are we? And—ow! Watch the elbows, blondie!”

“You’re on top,” Rosalie said. “Break us out. I can’t get the proper leverage.”

At the bottom of the stack, with her back pressed into the coffin floor, Zoey squirmed around. There wasn’t much she could do to help.

And, of course, having her girlfriend’s naked body piled on top, rubbing her, Zoey’s lower half responded in the way she’d expect.

“Are you getting hard?” Rosalie hissed.

“I don’t think I can be blamed for that,” Zoey said simply, her member swelling and squeezing between their stomachs—a reminder to how this entire adventure had begun, and twice as exciting for that fact.

“How come you get to be in the middle?” Delta complained. “I always get the short stick. And—seriously, where the hell are we? How do I get us out?”

“It’s a coffin,” Rosalie said. “Same thing happened last time. Just brace against the floor and pop the lid off.”

“You started like this?” Delta asked. “Damn. That had to have been an introduction and a half. Some girls get all the luck.”

“I don’t know if that’s what I’d call it,” Rosalie ground out. Then she paused, looking at Zoey, something Zoey could only barely make out in the near pitch blackness. “Not that—you were—you know what I mean.”

Zoey just laughed. This situation, as most of her life, was too ridiculous to form a real response to.

Then she groaned, Delta’s continued repositioning pushing Rosalie down, and rubbing her girlfriend’s tight stomach against her cock. It slid against Rosalie’s bumpy abs, and Zoey decided it had been too long since she’d played with those.

“Are you humping?”

Zoey’s hips had started moving without her input. She stilled. “Uh. Sorry.”

“Think … I’ve got it …” Delta said. “Help push, blondie.”

With some grunts of exertion, and some more positioning of limbs and bracing—which Zoey’s cock enjoyed very much—the wooden lid tore upward, nails ripping out. Delta clambered out first, followed by Rosalie, then Zoey last.

Last time, it had taken Zoey’s Bolster ability to break them out, but even the base strength of Rosalie and Delta could handle it, now. Probably Rosalie alone could have, if it’d just been the two of them, and she hadn’t been smooshed in the middle.

The orange-haired foxgirl stretched, and Zoey tried not to stare at her muscles. While both Rosalie and Delta were much more lean than bulky, they still looked the role of adventurer. Even Zoey did, thanks to Ephy’s blessing. It was an aesthetic she very much appreciated. Even more so than usual, worked up from how Rosalie’s abs had been caressing her in a very indulgent way, not a moment ago.

Delta turned around, looked at Zoey’s cock—standing at full fourteen inch attention—then whistled.

“I forget every time,” Delta said. “Honestly, only a goddess could have given you that thing. So that part checks out, at least.”

Rosalie gave Zoey an unimpressed look, but only after her eyes lingered between her legs, too. The disapproval was more from being hard in the first place. Though, seriously, Zoey didn’t think she was at fault for that.

She cleared her throat and shifted from foot to foot. As titillating as their brief capture had been, now wasn’t the time to be doing—well, anything.

Even if Rosalie’s abs were twice as enticing as usual.

“Okay,” Delta said. “Naked and weaponless, once again.” She paused, then smirked and gave Zoey’s cock a pointed look. “Well, two of us are. How come the dungeon lets you keep your spear?”

“Ha-ha,” Zoey said. “What’re we doing? What’s the plan?” With a mental inspection of her inventory, she said, “and it took our other stuff, too. Even our lewd equipment.” The second shard—Not-Zoey’s—had let them keep that. This time, they were starting the adventure truly bare.

“Two third advancements and a single second,” Delta said, “against a tier one shard. Yeah. Don’t think a ‘plan’ is super important. Can cut straight through.” She wrinkled her nose, then turned and narrowed her eyes at Zoey. Her fluffy orange tail swished behind her. “You know, speaking of advancements, I’m still mad you passed me. How’d that happen?”

“Divine intervention,” Zoey said. “Literally.” By all meanings of fair, Zoey shouldn’t be higher advancement than Delta. It was just wrong. With luck, she’d get her own level-up shortly, putting them all on the same rank.

“Weakest in the group,” Delta muttered. “Seriously. What’s up with that?”

“I doubt you’re the weakest. I’d still lose against you.” The bonuses gained through progressions were significant, but Delta was a woman competent enough to have met Rosalie’s standards—which, from what Zoey knew, meant she was one of the best wayfarers in the city of Treyhull.

Delta considered that, then shrugged. “Yeah. Probably. Having heavy weaponry helps, but knowing how to use it is more important.” She smirked and flicked her eyes down to Zoey’s crotch, making the innuendo clear. Not that Zoey had missed it.

“So in this metaphor,” Zoey said, “you’re the one wielding tiny weapons, right?”

Delta paused. “Hey.”

Rosalie shook her head, then stalked toward the entrance-room exit. “Ridiculous. Let’s get moving.”

Delta followed after her, but only after sharing another smirk with Zoey.

Zoey exited last, settling her thoughts and bracing for whatever Mel’s shard had to offer, this time.