Collisa (Outsider Book 1), page 33
Over the next few hours they settled into a routine, getting the work of killing the groups of four kobolds down to a science. There were rarely any injuries, with Ilin taking the brunt of them, but Zuri quickly healed him and they continued.
They managed to clear the outpost and about half the main camp before lunch time. The experience had been great, bumping Dare and his lover that much closer to 13, and they had a couple handfuls of silver ore, a few chunks of gold ore, and one rock that might've contained a geode or deposit of semiprecious stone inside. They'd also got a few rusty picks and shovels that could be sold.
Dare suggested they pause for lunch and began handing out dried meat and mushrooms. Then they all settled on the grass outside the aggro range of the remaining monsters to rest and eat.
“Does the camp respawn every 12 hours, like other spawn points?” he asked.
Ilin shrugged. “The person who told me about it didn't say, one way or another. I guess we assume so until see proof otherwise.”
The man took a few more bites, then paused and gave Dare and Zuri a long look. “You know, my friends, it seems we're all traveling north to Kov,” he said casually. “You two do remarkably well together.” He chuckled ruefully. “Probably even well enough to take the kobolds without my help, with a bit of preparation and some extra effort.”
“You want to travel together?” Dare asked.
“Why not?” the Monk said with a broad smile. “I get to sit back and enjoy ranged teammates doing most of the work for me, while you get the reassurance that if any enemies do reach us, you won't have to worry about running around like idiots trying to cast spells or shoot arrows.”
There was something to that. Their leveling always slowed to a crawl when an enemy reached them, with Dare usually having to kite the monster while Zuri finished it off, with help from his cooldowns if they were available.
And there was always the chance of aggroing more adds than they could handle; having another teammate would make things safer.
“I don't suppose you'd reconsider joining our party?” he asked without much hope.
Ilin laughed. “Not just yet. We're doing well with the arrangement like it is, are we not?” He leaned forward eagerly. “But I'd like to stay around this camp for a while so we can farm it every respawn, at least until we level enough that it's no longer worth the effort. And any other good monster spawns nearby during the rest of the time, assuming we can test them to be sure they're not too high level or dangerous for their level.”
Dare glanced at Zuri, who nodded. “I'd be fine with that,” he agreed. “We want to focus on leveling more than traveling or exploring, and anyway I don't want to get too far from Driftwain until I can afford a Level 20 bow that was on sale there. And maybe a Level 14 bow in the interim to help us get to that level faster.”
“Then it's settled.” The Monk leaned forward, offering his hand to each of them in turn. “Here's to friendship, safety in numbers, leveling like madmen, and making a fortune.”
“In the grand tradition of your esteemed order,” Dare said wryly as he accepted the handshake.
Their new companion laughed. “I'm young and low level, yet. My teachers may have instilled the proper values in me from childhood, but I won't have to worry about perfecting Stoicism to get to the next stage of my abilities until I'm much higher level.”
“Speaking of lack of stoicism . . .” Dare glanced at his lover. “We'd welcome you into our camp, but privacy would be nice and you probably wouldn't want to hear what we get up to anyway.”
Ilin laughed even harder. “Don't worry. I meditate when I'm not doing anything else, including all night. And in that state my subconscious mind is open to the world around me but pays attention to none of it . . . in meditation I only register threats or cues that it's time to come back to awareness.” He grinned at them. “You could literally be rutting on top of me, and unless one of you tried to bite me or kick me I wouldn't notice.”
Dare shifted awkwardly. “We'll still try to keep it quiet, assuming you want to camp with us.”
“If you'll have me I'd be honored. And of course I'll respect your privacy, and do my share of tasks around camp and all the rest.” The Monk dusted a few crumbs off his clothes and sprang to his feet, motioning to the camp. “Ready to finish this place off and go find something else to hunt?”
Zuri swallowed the last bite of her jerky whole and joined Ilin, and Dare tucked the rest of his food away and stood as well. They made their way to the next group of four kobolds, ready to resume the hunting.
He'd considered a lot of events to be the start of his adventure. And maybe that's because there were many starts. Or that he was having such a good time on this new world that everything felt new and exciting, a constant adventure.
Either way, he was ready to start the next phase of his adventure with Zuri at his side. And more lovers to come in the future, he was sure.
Epilogue
A Gift
This wasn't a dream.
Sure, Dare remembered falling asleep, and he was aware that dreamers usually didn't realize they were in one. But he knew.
He was in a room with pure white walls, floor, and ceiling, perhaps ten feet by ten feet. There was no door, and the substance of the room's surfaces was hard to determine but was flat and smooth like alabaster.
The space was completely empty aside from the bed he was currently lying flat on his back on, a futon on the floor in the center of the space. Just a normal black futon, almost uncomfortably firm, especially resting on a stone floor, complete with rumpled sheets as if he'd been tossing and turning in his sleep.
He was completely naked, although the air didn't feel cold on his bare skin. Or warm, for that matter.
Dare had been momentarily frozen in place, disoriented and confused as he looked around and tried to figure out what the hell was going on. He was starting to get his bearings now, but as he made to sit up he froze again.
A shadow was growing on the wall, like a distant person backlit by a bright light slowly approaching. It had a woman's shape, a naked woman's shape, curvy and voluptuous and tantalizing in the fact that he couldn't see more than vague details.
The silhouette reached human size, giving the impressing it was just on the other side of the wall. He should've been terrified by what was happening, like some sort of horror movie, but instead he felt a sense of peace and comfort.
Still, it was a fucking shadow person on the wall, while he was trapped in a bizarre completely white room with no doors or windows that he didn't remember entering.
Dare tried to look at the shadow with his Adventurer's Eye ability, but it didn't register as anything. Which seemed impossible; every living thing he'd encountered so far had at least been recognized by the Eye, even if many of them just showed up as “critter, normal stats”.
Was the shadow woman alive? Was this some sort of hallucination? Maybe a magical attack? Was it actually a dream, even if his mind adamantly insisted it wasn't?
So far the shadow wasn't doing anything. But even as he thought that, as if waiting for a cue, it began moving gracefully in a very erotic dance. Or she did, because she was very obviously trying to entice him.
As she dipped, swayed, and twirled, movements designed to exaggerate the hypnotic motions of her breasts, hips, and ass, he glimpsed perky nipples stiffened from either cold or arousal. As well as the occasional glimpse of plump, pouty lips between her legs when the angle was right.
In profile her face was elfin and delicate, a small nose and full lips just begging to be kissed. Her hair fell loose halfway down her back, flowing with her graceful movements and occasionally fanning out behind her as she twirled.
In spite of Dare's disorientation and the oddness of the situation, he felt his cock stir as he watched the sensual display. Soon it was standing tall and proud, obscuring his view of the shadow woman's dance.
At which point the shadow flowed off the wall and onto the floor, the woman moving as if crawling towards him, except in two dimensions.
In spite of the feeling of calm and warmth, and the fact that he was rock hard, he couldn't help but scream at that.
But it turned out that he hadn't just been frozen by confusion; it felt like some sort of sleep paralysis, with only his head able to move. And his cock, he supposed, although that was completely involuntary.
Almost as if chagrined, the shadow paused. Then it moved to stretch out beside him on the bed and just lay there quietly, as if trying to reassure him.
Dare abruptly realized that the shadowy woman was shivering slightly. Was she nervous, excited? Somehow that simple gesture made her seem more human, or more whatever she was, and he started to calm down.
Especially since she was just laying there next to him, facing him head-on so he couldn't see any of her features in profile. Which was actually a bit unnerving, reminding him a bit of the motionless faces of the slime girls.
He quickly tore his eyes away and inspected the rest of her, and in spite of himself couldn't help but find the sight even more appealing up close.
What he could see of the shadow woman's curves from this angle were lush and alluring. In fact, he'd almost go so far as to say she had the exact body shape he most liked. His cock, which had wilted slightly, rose to full rigidity again and began to throb.
The shadow tentatively stretched out a hand, as if offering it to him, slim and elegant on the futon between them. Dare knew he was probably being stupid, but maybe he was just a sucker for a face lost in shadow and a pretty body. And it wasn't like he hadn't taken reckless risks before in order to get his dick wet, like with the slime girls.
Either way, he slowly extended his own hand until his fingers touched the shadow woman's.
They were slightly cool and had an odd texture. Not so much smooth but as if there was a complete absence of friction. However, even though he couldn't see anything but flat surfaces and profiles from the shadow, he could feel the shape of her slender fingers beneath his.
Or at least, the odd sensation of frictionless resistance.
To his surprise the shadow hand rose off the futon, lifting his with it. It became three-dimensional as it did, and the cool, frictionless fingers closed around his delicately, maybe even tentatively. It was a weird sensation, pressure but no friction, but not an unpleasant one.
“What are you?” he whispered gently.
As if in answer, the shadow slipped towards him. She raised slightly off the futon, hip, shoulder, and side briefly becoming three-dimensional and showing the sort of curvy shape that would make any man's mouth water.
Then Dare bit back a scream as she flowed smoothly on top of him.
The sensation was odd, like being covered by a cool, heavy blanket. He hesitantly ran his hand across the top of the shadow lying across his chest, and was baffled by the same cool, smooth sensation he was feeling from below.
Did the shadow woman only have shape when she raised herself off the ground?
His confusion and questions faded as the shadow atop him . . . undulated was the only way he could describe it. The sensation across his gooseflesh-covered skin was like he was being massaged along every contact point.
It was oddly soothing and pleasant, and in spite of the bizarreness of the situation and his fear that this entity might be some sort of threat, he felt himself relaxing.
The shadow head had been across his upper chest, but now it lifted to hover over him. He still couldn't see any features since she was facing him head on, but as the head lowered towards him he felt the cool, frictionless sensation of her lips pressing against his.
The rest of the shadow continued to undulate, massaging him and lulling him into a relaxed state. The smooth sensation of the shadow moving across his bare skin was pleasant, and in a strange way arousing as well.
Probably because he knew the sensations he felt were of a naked woman, albeit a shadowy one, basically doing a full body grind against him.
Through it all the shadowy lips continued to brush his. To his shock he felt a hint of wetness as they parted, then a cool, wet tongue teasing against his lips with that same frictionless feel.
He kept his mouth shut; he had no idea what that wet substance was, especially not produced from a disembodied shadow, but he sure as fuck wasn't letting it in his mouth. The shadow didn't seem disappointed by that, although the cool lips moved away from his mouth and began running along his chin and neck, then across his collar. From above he could see the hint of long hair falling this way and that as the shadowy head moved.
As this was going on the undulating shadow below his waist finally went for the kill.
He felt his massive erection smothered by the cool smoothness. The rippling sensation engulfed him and massaged his length in the same way it was doing every other part of his skin the shadow touched, and Dare groaned.
The sensation was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before, but he couldn't deny it was pleasurable.
He lasted longer than he could ever remember under the gentle ministrations of the shadow. A languid, even peaceful process that washed over him like waves on the beach, lulling him into an odd mixture of drowsy and tense with arousal.
Perhaps he drifted, but his eyes immediately snapped open when he felt cool wetness flow over his crotch. He immediately looked down, but the shadowy head was still nibbling at his collarbone.
What? But that would mean . . .
Dare lifted himself onto his elbows and looked down, amazed but not surprised to see that the shadow over his crotch had lifted, forming into the silhouette of a perfectly rounded ass rising slowly up and down as the sensation engulfing his cock continued its gently rippling massage.
The shadow was fucking him.
He tentatively reached down, gathering up some of the cool liquid on his thigh. It had warmed slightly with the heat of his body, and between his fingers felt just like he'd expect from the nectar from Zuri or any of his other lovers.
He raised it to his face for a better look, seeing a glistening wetness coating his skin. It had no smell he could discern, and he certainly wasn't about to taste it, but for all that it certainly felt like juices from a woman's arousal.
And yet even as he watched the glistening area shrank, then faded away as if it had an incredibly low evaporation point. Dare looked back down at the gorgeous shadowy rump rising and falling over his cock with increasing speed.
Was his mysterious lover a ghost or something?
He started with surprise when the peaceful, almost soothing sensation milking his cock became a series of tightening ripples. The shadowy head sliding over his chest abruptly jerked up into three-dimensional perspective as the woman's back arched, and for a brief moment he caught the right angle to see his shadow lover's mouth open in rapture.
Well, good to know he could make odd ghost/shadow women climax too.
As she came down from her peak Dare decided to try something. He wrapped an arm around the shadow blanketing his chest and rolled over, hoping to take her with him. To his pleasant surprise the shadow, like a real woman, followed his movements, creating a faintly defined pool of darkness beneath him as he positioned himself above her.
He could still feel the cool, frictionless inside of the shadow woman's drenched pussy around his cock, and looked down to see shadow legs spread wide to either side, as if she was doing the splits. A peek underneath his raised hips showed the junction between her thighs still there in stark relief, glistening with ethereal arousal.
Dare grunted, pleased, and then began to thrust into his lover.
The shadow flowed beneath him, but the soothing undulations were nowhere to be seen. Instead it flowed and pressed desperately against his skin as he pounded the upraised shadow pussy with increasing vigor. He felt coolness slip around his sides and to his back, her arms clutching him and holding him close.
Then he gasped in surprise and involuntarily jerked his hips in an extra hard thrust as he felt cool lines of fire draw across his lower back.
Was she . . . clawing his skin in pleasure?
Dare looked down again, and as if the woman had intended it her head was turned to one side, showing her face in profile. Her delicate features were scrunched in passion, mouth open in panting gasps, and the once-soothing grip of her delicate walls tightened to a rippling vise as she once again climaxed around his cock.
He grunted, struggling to distract himself with any thoughts other than the sheer pleasure and eroticism of this bizarre experience. But it was a losing battle, and before long he gave a cry of release and thrust into her one last time, letting his blazing hot seed spray her cool insides.
She quivered beneath him like she was convulsing, icy lines of fire raked his back a final time, and then with abrupt suddenness the shadow vanished.
Dare nearly fell flat on his face even though he'd been supporting himself solidly, shocked at unexpectedly finding himself alone again. His last couple spurts sprayed the futon, and he could already feel the cool wetness of his disappeared lover's arousal beginning to evaporate off him.
He collapsed onto his side, sucking in huge breaths.
“What the fuck?” he asked once a bit of his composure had returned. “What the absolute fuck?”
The empty white chamber answered his question with silence. Then it slowly faded away, taking him with it.
* * * * *
Dare woke up slowly and languidly, feeling oddly refreshed and satisfied.
Zuri was curled up against his side, small hands wrapped lovingly around his limp, sensitive cock. From her position and the dampness on his stomach he assumed she'd discovered him hard in his sleep and had stroked him to another climax. Which would explain his dream.
Except it hadn't been a dream, he was sure of it. And he had a sneaking suspicion it was related to the curiously helpful system commands that spoke to him in the same voice as his unseen benefactor.
He didn't think it was a coincidence.
