Back to Yonder for Publication, page 12
As she did, I growled, “You’re mine.” Then I thrust forward.
It was raw and primal. A guttural groan escaped my lips as I plunged deep into her. My fingers pressed into the flesh of her hips as I brought our bodies together. With one forceful thrust, I buried myself completely in her.
She gasped. “They weren’t lying about your size.”
I laughed and felt my tension melt away. “There’s a bit of a story behind that, but it seems alchemy can have some unintended consequences.”
Then I pulled back. Her slick tunnel grasped at me, like it didn’t want to let me go. I pushed back in again. I felt her body stretch, trying to conform to my shape. When it seemed she was comfortable, I simply let loose and began fucking her with abandon.
This wasn’t lovemaking. This was me fucking her senseless. This was my body pounding repeatedly into hers, all so I could enjoy her.
My cock swelled and started twitching within a dozen strokes. I didn’t want it to end, but I wanted to claim my prize. Then I smiled as I realized I could have my cake, and eat it to. The refractory period for my B rank body was essentially between zero and ten seconds.
With that thought, I unloaded, emptying myself inside of her. Jets of my cum filled her waiting pussy as she fulfilled the duty of a clerk. When I came, I felt something break in her—not physically, but at a deeper level. I hoped it was the god of shadows restoring her power, but then I pulled back my senses.
I didn’t care about that. All I cared about in this moment was fucking the woman beneath me—repeatedly.
I flipped her over, devoured her breasts and went for round two with her legs wrapped around my hips. I was pretty certain that Nimeera climaxed around me—and more than once—proving that Lina was right. Sometimes a woman just wanted to be taken.
What made this different from the times I’d fucked my bunnykin senseless, was that I was lost in enjoying her body, without a worry about the emotional side of things. The third and fourth times, we flipped around in different positions, but by the time I sprayed all over her breasts, the poor catgirl’s legs were trembling with exhaustion.
A few minutes before that, I’d sensed Josie walk into the bedroom and start undressing. She hadn’t said anything; she had simply watched. After that fourth time, though, she came forward and tapped me on my shoulder. “You better let the poor girl get some rest.”
I smiled back at her, feeling a freedom that surprised me. When I pulled an exhausted Nimeera up to her feet, I said, “I needed that more than I knew.”
She just smiled. Then Josie grabbed the other woman’s arm and led her to the side of the bed. “Thanks for warming my husband up for me.” She had a wicked look on her face, but it softened as she added, “Or maybe, I should say, taking his edge off so that I can enjoy his tender side. Lina set out a snack for you on the table, because we knew Rob would give you a thorough work-out.”
I couldn’t tell if Nimeera was sad to be so casually dismissed, but my wife was here now. And she was right, I was ready for some intimacy, not just more wild fucking. I heard the cat-girl leave, but my focus was already on Josie as our kissing began.
After a moment she pulled away and said, “You made a mess of the sheets.” She yanked them away and threw them to the side, leaving just the bare mattress below us.
I guess that was better. I didn’t want to lay in the wet spot, after all. We collapsed down beside one another and spent the next hour slowly enjoying ourselves. It was so different from what I’d just done with Nimeera, but equally fulfilling.
I truly loved this fiery woman in my arms, and I realized that once again she’d been looking out for me. They all seemed to know what I needed—even before I did, at times.
I was a damn lucky man.
Chapter 14 - Something Stupid and Reckless
I actually fell asleep in Josie’s arms. Not needing sleep to exist, and not needing sleep to thrive, were clearly different things. It made me wonder what else I was getting wrong about the transformation I was undergoing as my cultivation level increased.
In general, I thought of myself as less human than I’d been before coming to Olimero. I didn’t have the same needs or weaknesses—at least in a physical sense. Yet for all that, I still had the same psychological idiosyncrasies. Perhaps that was an indicator that this transformation was not quite what I thought it was.
The question might be as simple as deciding if power in and of itself was a defining trait of a being’s nature. Then again, this morning was not the time to wax philosophical. Hopefully there’d be a period of calm when I’d have the luxury of studying the lint in my bellybutton—but we weren’t there yet.
I’d done some light sparring with Josie up to this point and whatever one would call the training I’d led with the guards. Hopefully, now the curse on Nimeera had been lifted, she would be strong enough to spar with us, as well. But even if she did, I couldn’t neglect the other aspects of my training.
I needed to regroup with Rava about the alchemical properties of trolls. It would be a good way to learn in the field. We might not get a chance to do much brewing while the caravan was on the move, but whatever place we rented in Centrum for the tournament—and maybe even while we stopped over in Westerton for Rava and the merchants to do their business—would need to have space for her to brew and for me to learn.
There was also the matter of my internal growth—cultivation, mastery of my body, development of my mind core, and gaining a greater understanding of my universal concept—INDOMITABLE. But that wasn’t all.
I needed to figure out a way to grow my soul stat without having to consume the souls of living beings. I also had a few new types of mana byproducts stored within my channels to check out. And I needed to test how different types of mana could be combined to synergistic effect.
One interesting development, that had come as quite the surprise, was the understanding I’d gained last night about Indomitable. Clearly, the trait was related to what I believed strongly about. It wouldn’t trigger or apply to anything that I wasn’t firmly convinced about.
I would have to explore that some more, but for now, I was interested in the little bit of Aura Mana I still had in my system. I hoped it would be enough to complete my mind core—but even if it wasn’t, I needed to make more progress. I wished I had the mana chamber from back home, it would be eminently useful. Even having Mursha here to increase the gravity for me might help me reach a breakthrough.
Hmm… that made me wonder. Were there ways that the mana from the others could benefit me? Maybe I had been short sighted when it came to how the others could help me. Clearly, Josie could create an environment which would test my body’s durability, even if it would be difficult to talk her into doing so.
But what about the others? Healing Mana had helped me in the past but was there another way I could use it? Or Research Mana? Or even Nimeera’s Emotion Mana?
It was something I’d consider, right after I got done doing something stupid and reckless. The fact that Josie wasn’t still in bed with me—or even in the tent, as far as I could sense—was evidence of how worried she was about the fairies. But it also meant that there was no one here to stop me from feeding the final point of Aura Mana into my mind core.
I sat up in the middle of my bed and began focusing. Lina was outside the tent, cooking breakfast, and I could hear Robbie toddling around. I wasn’t sure where Nimeera was, but she wasn’t anywhere near the tent. For a brief moment, I felt bad about last night and hoped she wouldn’t be angry with me, but then I pushed the thought aside. I knew she wasn’t. She had been perfectly fine with it being what it was—and I had to accept that sometimes it was okay for me to enjoy good things.
I smiled. Really good things.
Then, I refocused and pushed my senses inward. There hadn’t been any notifications after sealing the deal with Korkanis, but I guess it called for me to keep Nimeera around as a clerk for a full year. It seemed it wasn’t a simple wham, bam, thank you ma’am. Well, it had been last night—but it wasn’t just a one off.
Inside me, I saw that my channels were becoming cluttered with different types of mana byproducts. It felt like when I had first evolved in my cultivation and had needed to purge junk out of my body. I would need to consider whether or not I could do that again. My core itself was suffused with ki and, overall, I felt healthier than I had… well… ever, I guess.
I turned my focus to my Mind Core. It was still only sixty-one percent formed. There was a definitive, round shape to it. It wobbled and couldn’t be spun. It was only partially connected to my channels, and was currently fed exclusively through my mind meridian.
I needed to finish forming it and see what I could do with it.
I was feeling unstoppable, and I knew my time was limited this morning. I knew that soon, Josie or one of the others would come to get me. I had to deal with the fairies today, and we needed to get this caravan moving.
I let that push me into a reckless decision. No—not a reckless decision, I realized. It was a decision consistent with who I was. I didn’t honestly contemplate failing, not for a single moment.
In one swift motion, I pushed all the remaining Aura Mana in my system into my mind core. The power surged through me, and my Mind Core began pulsing. The pain in my head was intense, but somehow it seemed distant from me. It was like someone else was experiencing the pain. Then I saw what the buffer was; it was my conviction.
A notification popped up.
You have advanced your understanding of INDOMITABLE. This tiny sliver of eternity fills you and is activated by your convictions. You have said you are a man who does what he says he will do, but this must become a constant in your life. Your belief in the justice of your actions must be constant. To be truly INDOMITABLE, you must turn that certainty inward as well as outward.
Time passed. I read the notification. I pondered it.
I felt the pain of my transforming mind core, but it was so different from the past. I never came close to passing out, nor did I feel like I was being ripped apart—although I did feel a reordering within myself. It tingled and made me feel a bit uncomfortable.
At least I wasn’t screaming in pain. I could get used to this. Eventually, I felt a hand shake my shoulder.
“Rob, wake up.”
I recognized the voice, but I had been lost in the pleasant place of finding myself. I really didn’t want to leave just yet. It was like I was coming to understand who I was—for the first time in my life.
“I know how to wake him,” a second voice said. I knew it too, but it seemed so very distant.
“No, this isn’t the time for that,” the first voice said.
“What guy doesn’t like to wake up like that?” the second voice asked.
Then a third voice, which was just as familiar said, “Step out of the way. This isn’t a game. I can’t tell what’s happening inside him, but there is something happening inside of him. He is changing, and even my mana can’t explain it.”
The second voice gasped.
“Maybe that’s good… and maybe it’s bad,” the first voice muttered.
I heard a sound, like a cork being removed from a bottle.
“I just know that I don’t want my husband to lose himself,” the third voice said. “I like who he is, so I’m gonna wake him up the hard way.”
A second later, I smelled something… to say that it was awful would have been an understatement of epic proportions. It wasn’t the stench, so much as it was the potency. I’d always wondered what smelling salts were like and how they worked when I saw them in the movies, but whatever this was, it put those imaginings to shame.
I sprang to my feet, backing away and shaking my head; anything to get away from that pungent odor.
As I opened my eyes, I saw Rava waving a capless vial of some black sludge right where my nose had been but moments before. Behind her, Josie and Lina both had huge grins on their faces.
I shook my head. “Ugh, that was awful. What was it?”
My elven wife smiled. “Why, you made it. I haven’t been able to find any use for the black sludge you secreted that one time in the courtyard. Well, no use other than to wake the dead. It has a powerful odor which seems to assault all the senses.”
“Uggh,” I groaned. “For the record, my vote is that you try Lina’s suggestion first, if this should happen again.”
The bunnygirl squealed and then leaped into my arms. I caught her reflexively and pulled her in for a kiss.
Josie grinned, but was still shaking her head as she said, “No time for that. Nimeera is keeping an eye on the fairy, but Jasper is going crazy, worrying about what to do with it. You are gonna need to take charge.”
“One second,” Rava said, holding up a delicate hand. “I know that is important, but I want to know what you were doing, husband.”
I then explained about what I’d done, and how I’d felt myself connecting with INDOMITABLE at a deeper level.
None of my wives were happy about it, but they all forgave me, since it seemed that I was fine. I had to remind Rava that she said she liked me the way that I was. Which prompted them to ask me how much I’d heard of what they had been saying. Again, I had to explain how everything outside of me had felt oddly distant.
Rava got a concerned look on her face, but then asked, “And was it worth it?”
“Hmm… I haven’t looked to see if there were any notifications, but I feel… different?” I frowned, trying to put this feeling into words. “Give me a second to check my notifications.”
Moderate progress has been made towards INDOMITABLE.
Mind Core Formation: +34% (Currently at 95%)
You have exhausted all supplies of Aura Mana. You will need to develop a new method in order to bring your mind core to completion. Only then will you be able to reach the next stage.
You have reached cultivation grade B-2 (+10 to all stats).
Remaining objectives necessary for A rank:
1) Reach cultivation grade B-0 for your body cultivation. Further progress will result from combining the body and the mind.
2) Complete your Mind Core and circulate ki through it
3) Finish syncing with your universal concept: INDOMITABLE.
I smiled. “It seems I jumped two cultivation grades.”
Lina, who was still in my arms, ran her fingers over my biceps. “I thought my man got stronger.”
Josie shook her head. “As if it worked like that.”
I smiled. “Just let her have it. I certainly didn’t hear you complaining last night.”
Then I explained to them about the progress I had made with my universal trait, and how I’d even been given a listing of what was necessary to reach the next rank. There still wasn’t any gauge to tell me exactly how close I was towards synching with INDOMITABLE, but I assumed that was probably nebulous at best.
It would be one of those things that I’d know it when I reached it, but not until then. We talked a bit about how they wanted to make sure this didn’t change me, and I let each of them express their concerns—even setting Lina down so that I could hug my other wives.
The notification gave me a great deal to think about. I had to figure out what it meant, combining my mind and my body. That one had me stumped—but I did have some ideas about how I might be able to finish my mind core. I just needed to think it though a bit more. I kept what that was to myself—for now—although I hinted that I hoped Rava would be able to help me with it.
By the time we were done, I figured we had kept Nimeera and Jasper waiting long enough. Truth be told, I wasn’t in any hurry to deal with the fairies, but I was anxious to talk to Nimeera and find out if there had been any changes with her curse after last night’s events.
So many things to do and so little time. At least I still felt rested and refreshed.
Chapter 15 – Shadow Blessed
Just a couple minutes later, I walked into the tent holding the possessed Stan. The cowkin was no longer calmly sitting on the floor, but instead was pacing. The fairy possessing his body looked at me when I entered and spoke. I had to bite back a laugh—it was comical to hear such a high-pitched voice coming out of the cowkin’s beefy frame.
“How dare you leave me waiting this long. Don’t you realize I am a royal princess? I hold your fate in my hands.”
I walked right up to Stan. Even as wide as his shoulders were, I towered over him by several inches and knew that my body was significantly stronger than anything the cowkin could do. Placing my palm against his chest, I maneuvered him into position where I could push him back into a chair.
