[Edited] Chapter 14 - A Brief Adventure at the Bathhouse

On rereading this chapter, I found it to be surprisingly poorly written. There were several plot threads just left dangling, the tension did not develop at all well, and lots of other things. The main thrust of the chapter is the same, but I ended up doing quite a lot revision.

Also, you may notice more issues with missing spaces between italicized words than usual. That is an artifact of transferring the text to Patreon and does not exist in the original text. I do scan for those whenever I post here, but for some reason, Patreon is not highlighting the errors today.

As usual, see the attachment for the original w/ editorial notes.

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After receiving directions from Tips, we once again set out through the streets of Raialie. The Younger side of town, named for the river it was adjacent to, was a much more commercial district. And that made sense, given it was the river which connected the town to Bradfirth, so most of the trade went through it. Even in the late afternoon, there were hawkers and merchants all over the place selling all sorts of things from food to jewelry to things I had never even heard of.

As the crowds increased, the Dolilim started to become… well, the best I can say is uneasy. I hesitate to use dogs as an analogy—that would be more than a little unfair—but there was a certain similarity to how… underfoot the two of them were acting. They were circling and darting about me with a jittery and nervous energy. Every single person—whether large or small, man or woman, adult or child—was a subject of interest at best or a target of naked hostility at worst.

The latter was particularly true for any of the women who happened to look at us more than once. And going from my lilim’s reactions, a lot more of them were than I was noticing.

At first, I was more than little annoyed by their behavior. It was not as if we were in any danger. People were probably just curious about the supposedly powerful Questers that had appeared in their midst… and the unusually shabby clothes they happened to be wearing. The way my girls were behaving, you would think we were trying to infiltrate an orc encampment or something.

By the time we arrived at the bathhouse, even I was starting to feel uneasy. It was almost as if their skittishness was contagious. However, I soon realized I was not actually feeling nervous at all. No, what I was feeling was a very slow, yet continuous stream of Life. Specifically from Jax.

We were around so many people—far more than I had ever seen at once on this world—and so much emotionthat Jax could not contain any more, and per the skill she had purchased, she had unconsciously started feeding me the excess. I had to forgive myself for not noticing it at first. After all, it was not some torrent of Energy as often accompanied her vampiric ability, or like when she had to convert Lust.

Truthfully, it was a welcome relief. I had been on the road for quite a while and was absolutely famished. So, the experience was sort of like showing up to a party with an expansive hors d’oeuvres bar after having skipped lunch. Except that I had been skipping lunch for… well, I was not sure, actually. Like a month?

Weirdly enough, Jax was starting to relax a little now that the channel of Energy had opened up between us. Perhaps it helped her to feel my presence more clearly, giving her a degree of confidence as to my exact location within the crowd. I had to imagine, with all these people around, she had begun to ‘lose sight’ of me on an emotional level. She still hovered protectively, of course, but it was more in the vein of a vigilant body guard rather than the overexcited dog, primed to bark at every passing stranger, she had been.

As for Arx…

Well, Arx was starting to look a lot like a strung-out crackhead. She had a hunched posture and was staring fixedly at the ground. Meanwhile, her jitteriness had progressed to full on tremors, and she had begun clutching at her arms. She almost looked close to a nervous breakdown.

Shit… we never got around to buying the Life transferal skill for her.

But that was easily fixed. She had been gaining Layers steadily while we traveled, and I was pretty sure she had not yet used the skill point she had earned that morning.

First, though, we needed to get out of the crowd.

Trying to be comforting, I wrapped an arm around her waist, and she practically jumped out of her own skin. However, when she realized it was me, she quickly pressed herself to my side as if to shield herself.

“Dearest!” she said, panting now from the overstimulation. “Dearest, help. I-it’s too much!”

I nodded reassuringly. With this many people around, she had to feel like she was being continually force-fed from a trash compactor. And with no outlet.

“I know. Come on, let’s get you inside.”

*****

It turned out an eighth of silver was easily enough to purchase a private bathing room. My mental conversion rate put that at something like fifty bucks, which seemed suspiciously high for accommodations like that. Having never once been to a bath house, I had no basis for comparison, but from the obsequious manner of the attendant we had negotiated with—a skinny, blond laoi with an over-large nose—I had to assume he had just negotiated a rather large tip from our payment.

Still, the price included an assortment of soaps and oils, brushes, rags, and even a few linens which, given their size, I had to assume were meant to be used as towels. Plus, we had free use of the room for the rest of the evening. So I was not too upset about it.

Besides, we were in too much of a hurry to bother with negotiating.

By the time we found our room, Arx’s face was already flushed with fever from the excess Life Energy in her body turning to heat. I was familiar with the experience, having suffered a similar reaction back when Jax and I were battling our way clear of the Beetle’s food storage room.

We had only just gained the skills necessary to make the conversion process possible, and the Beetles had this nasty, paralysis-inducing bite. Needless-to-say, having to convert that venom to Lust, the Lust then to Life, and then sending the excess to me, all while badly outnumbered, had overtaxed Jax’s ability to handle it all. So I had ended up so flooded with Energy, steam had shot out from my ears. Figuratively speaking, of course. I was just fortunate to have had a few spells I could channel the stuff into.

Arx was not yet so fortunate.

As soon as I shut the door, Jax clasped her by the shoulders. “Alright, sister. The skill yer wanting be called, Life for Master. When yer full of the stuff, it’ll send what ye don’t need to him.”

Arx nodded and quickly began murmuring under her breath.

I frowned to myself as I waited. This would be the final skill she needed in order to complete the Status-Ailment-to-Life-Energy skillchain we had going. From this point forward, we would pretty much be… well, not immuneto Status Ailments, exactly. But we could deal with them pretty quickly. Put together, it was a fairly powerful combination of skills.

Still…

I just had this vague premonition that I was doing something wrong. Like an instinct. I tried arguing with myself that I was fretting over nothing, but that did not help. I had been a gamer for too long not to look at obviously-broken skill combos with anything less than trepidation.

If I ever get another lilim, I have got to figure out another way of getting that combo to work. Must. Avoid. The Nerf-Hammer.

Nerfs—technically ‘adjustments’ to a skill’s effectiveness—were the bane of all online gamers, though some argued they were a necessary evil. Those people were disgusting boot-lickers, but they had a certain point. After all, developers could not foresee every eventuality, and gamers were notorious for finding and exploiting the hell out of game-breaking skill combinations. However, it was often the case that such skills would be nerfed so hardthey became all but useless, leaving once beloved characters abandoned and broken.

Still, just because I had done a thing twice, that did not make it some meta trend that the Goddess needed to urgently patch. Besides, Lilim were the only creatures that could even convert Emotional Ailments to Life Energy. It would be a crime not to take advantage of it. And it was not as if we were getting off lightly in terms of skill points to obtain the skill combo. That had count for something.

Of course, all of that was predicated on the assumption that Bline would even do a thing like that. It would be nice to be able to have a real conversation with Her, at some point. I wonder if Ahnbe could set that up? They were supposed to be sisters, after all. Though, the prospect of intentionally having another conversation with the Shepherdess was more than a little daunting, and I was not about to try and draw Her attention over something She might find trivial.

Right about then, I felt the telltale stirrings of another channel to my Core opening up through my crotch, and I turned as a decidedly Arx-flavored stream of Life began to flow into me.

My gray-skinned lilim sagged with relief the moment the skill activated, and she took a deep and calming breath. Somewhat hesitantly, she glanced at me, and a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

“Wow… this is nice. It’s like every skill I take is specifically designed to make me… Mmm…” she paused to run her hands over the wave of gooseflesh that had pimpled her arms. “Can you feel it, too?” she asked finally.

“What? The Life Energy?” I asked, and at her nod, I smiled. “Sure, I can. I can even tell the difference between you and Jax. You have a different sort of… I dunno. Flavor, I guess. But yours isn’t quite as uh… well, I don’t want to say strong. It’s still quite nice. But it doesn’t come in as fast.”

At that admission, Arx’s unhappy pout was mirrored almost exactly by Jax’s self-satisfied grin.

“I’m sure that’ll change with practice,” Arx reasoned, though whether to reassure me or herself, I could not say. “I only just purchased the skill.”

“Could be,” I allowed, but I had a doubt as to that.

Now that I could compare the flavors and consistencies of Life Energy flowing into me, I could tell more than ever that there was something different about the bonds I had between Jax and Arx. And I had a suspicion as to what that difference was.

Ever since Jax had made her vow of love back in the Dungeon and officially crossed over from Loyalty to Devotion, I had been able to sense her through our connection much more clearly. If I were to close my eyes and spin, I was certain that I could point out exactly where she was standing. Maybe even at quite a distance, too.

Might be useful to experiment with that…

Most of the time, I was not really even aware of it. Until now, I had only ever noticed it when we were having sex. I could feelher in those moments. Feel her down to her Core. Her emotions. Her desires. But there was something else. Something drawing us ever closer together.

Something that made the sex reallynice.

Of course, sex with Arx was great, too. She was nothing if not enthusiastic, after all, and far more experienced than Jax could ever be. But somehow, we did not quite have that same spark. Or not yet, anyway. I could sense that the potential was there, and it was growing steadily. It was like a pressure building up behind a clogged drain, ready to burst.

That certain something was missing though. Whether I needed to find it… or she did, I could not say.

But for now, I did not want to put any additional pressure on Arx. Our relationship was still in its infancy, and it was not as if I was dissatisfied. Whatever this was could build at its own pace.

So all I said was, “You’re probably right.”

Unconsciously shifting my shoulders a bit to readjust to the double stream flowing through me—down there—I realized it would not be long before they started picking up on how much it was turning me on. I may as well just come out with it. It’ll probably happen anyway once we all start getting naked.

Then again, I was still a little irritated with Jax announcing her kink to the entirety of the Righteous Table Leg. Bedroom talk was supposed to stay in the bedroom!

Hmm… in that case, maybe I should have a little fun with this.

“Actually,” I admitted nonchalantly, “with the both of you feeding me like that, it’s kind of… stimulating.”

Instantly, the both of them sucked in a breath, and the tightly fitted ponchos they had draped over themselves stretched precipitously.

“Master…?” Jax breathed hopefully.

I quickly turned away from them to hide my grin. I almost never initiated. With their natures, I did not need to, so my showing even the slightest bit of interest was about like chucking an entire rump roast into a pool of live piranhas.

Roast successfully chucked, I busied myself with examining the bath we had just rented for the night.

The room itself was fairly interesting if simple. It was hexagonal in shape, and besides the one with the door, each of the walls had a stone bench set before it that was just wide enough for a single person to occupy comfortably. Meanwhile, a tiled basin—similarly hexagonal—was situated in the center and recessed into the floor. Curiously, the water in the basin had a bit of a current traveling from left to right.

However, what was concerning me was the complete lack of detectable heat rising from the water. Frowning, I knelt down to test it, and sure enough, it was just as frigid as the river. In fact, I was pretty sure it wasthe river.

The fuck? That sure as hell put a damper on things.

“Is there seriously no heat?” I asked in equal parts surprise and irritation. “I can’t believe we paid fif—uh… an eighth of silver for an unheated bath! That’s not expensive. That’s a ripoff!”

“We could keep ye warm while ye bathe, Master,” Jax suggested in a heavy and dreamy sort of tone, and I had little doubt as to which part of me she intended to impart that warmth. She was doubtlessly still reeling from the ‘mild suggestion’ I had teased them with a minute prior, but I could not blame her. I had deliberately provoked them, after all.

It was just that this new problem had put a serious damper on my mood.

I shook my head before climbing back to my feet. “Damn it. I’m sorry, Jax. That is very tempting, but I don’t exactly relish the idea of playing around with hypothermia again.”

“Mmm…” Arx hummed briefly before biting at her lip, every bit as provoked as her sister and showing no signs of relenting, “now that I’ve got this last skill, maybe we could all use a bit of practice? The faster we can convert Status Ailments, the safer we’ll be.”

I quirked an eyebrow. I would have thought, in light of our last experience, Arx might have retained a bit of hesitation, but from the way that she was looking at me, it appeared not. Still, there’s some merit to the suggestion.

Jax seemed to agree. Without another word, she stepped to one side and excitedly began to shimmy out of her skirt. I could hardly help but watch. It was such an unconsciously feminine act. The way that her backside shifted back and forth to reveal the firm and rounded flesh beneath practically called to my baser male instincts.

She must have sensed my gaze. Just as her skirt pooled to the floor, she began to slowly and teasingly work at the twine that was keeping her poncho tied, turning the simple act into a sensuous dance for my benefit.

Clearing my throat gruffly, I tried to put on a disinterested tone. “You dorealize that I have seen you naked quite a bit more than I’ve ever seen you clothed. And what are you planning anyway? You just going to jump in?”

“Why not?” Jax breathed seductively, not at all fooled. “We don’t feel the cold.”

“Yes, well, I do,” I replied. “In fact, everybody butyou two would. How do they expect normal people to bathe in here?”

She shrugged with one shoulder, unconcerned. Then, turning away from me, she loosened the final bit of twine and the front of her poncho came loose. Very slightly yet deliberately, she bent at the waist, and I could just see the underside of her breasts. Shivering from my attention alone, she glanced back over her shoulder and slowly began rolling her hips, exposing the folds nestled between them. Enticing me forward.

Chebs… she isn’t letting up, is she?

Jax inhaled deeply, expanding her ribs—and the lovely mounds that topped them—as far as they could go. With a languid and silky sort of movement, she oh-so-slowly began to pull the poncho over her head, making certain to jostle her breasts in the process.

My eyes widened and I forced myself to look away. I could already feel my manhood beginning to swell.

Wow… she is definitely getting better with the seduction. Of course, that made sense. Not a day had gone by that she had refrained from tempting me in one way or another. It was probably her most practiced skill by this point.

Arx moaned slightly from one side, and I shot a glance at her. She was staring at Jax raptly, if anything, even more turned on than I was.

I swallowed only to find that my tongue had stuck to the roof of my mouth. I seemed to have poked the bear with my little stunt… and now the piranhas were leaping from the water for the rest of their meal.

“I’m uh… I’m still not sure I want to do this. It’s not particularly… pleasant to have sex in freezing water.”

Jax giggled in a deep and sensuous sort of way. “Oh… it will be. I’ll make sure of that,” she promised as she turned back to face me, now fully naked.

Her body really was quite glorious. Her breasts were full and the pink nipples at their centers showed quite clearly just how aroused she was. Her wild mane of red hair and the black horns curling through it framed her face in a dazzling display. Her eyes, heavily lidded in her want, glimmered faintly in the low light of the room, and I could see the slight hint of a fang protruding from her lip as she smiled. Her breath was practically steaming with anticipation.

“Or maybe…” she lilted, her eyes flashing, “I’ll just… drag ye in.”

I swallowed nervously at the veiled threat, despite knowing full well she was only teasing. However, as she advanced on me, some of my self-confidence began to waver. She can’t be serious?

Placing one foot in front of the other to accentuate each step, she approached until she was close enough to gently cup my balls hanging loose from beneath the swaying tent I was making of my skirt. And when she leaned against me, I could feel her hot breath as she whispered into my ear, “Maybe then ye’d… spank me? Like ye promised?”

At the reminder, I took a deep and calming breath. Ah. So that’s it.

We were on opposite ends of the same wavelength. But now that I knew what game we were playing, I was determined to keep a firm check against my rising libido. Her body and seductive skill were making that—and me—hard enough, but now that Jax had her hands on me, I doubted I would be able to hold out much longer. Her ability to magnify the emotions she wanted a person to feel would make sure of that.

I had extracted a promise out of her, on purchasing that skill, not to use it on me without permission, but she was pretty bad about ‘forgetting’ about that. Mostly because I was pretty bad about reminding her. Happy-fun times were almost always soon to follow.

Still, I was not about to let her use me as she willed…

Reaching up, I grabbed her by the hair at the back of her head and pulled her close. Slowly, I ran my hand down the small of her back and around the firm globes of her backside, sealing her body to my own and crushing my hard length against her center. Then, my eyes full of promise, I inched closer… And closer.

But I paused just before our lips met…

And grinned.

Jax let out a frustrated little cry of protest as I drew back.

“Arx…” I said, before turning to look at her.

Quickly taking her in, the rapt stare from earlier had progressed significantly. She was bent forward at the waist and had begun shifting her hips in twitchy little jerks. Meanwhile, her full, gray lips had dropped open, and her breath had become shallow and caught at irregular intervals. It looked for all the world like she was struggling not to touch herself.

Startled, she snapped her mouth closed with a click. “Y-yes?”

I had been about to ask whether she might like to have a light spanking first just to keep screwing with Jax. Arx was hardly the masochist of the pair, but now that I looked at her, I realized in that moment she might have actually said yes.

If thathappened… well, Jax might just riot.

Games aside, I had wanted to actually bathe in here eventually, and my hesitation to jump into that pool had been quite real. Yes, we had the skills necessary to handle it, and yes, we could all use the practice. But there was a monumental difference between ‘handling it’ and ‘enjoying it.’

There has to be something we’re missing. No one would want to bathe in freezing river water.

With that in mind, I decided to change tack. “There will be no spankings or anything else until I get some heat in here. Go ask the attend—” I paused as I had another thought, “or better yet, Arx, why not do that humming thing? You haven’t practiced your divining skill today.”

It took her several moments to master herself, but eventually she nodded and began to quietly hum a tuneless little melody. Though, it took her a few more moments to finally drag her eyes off of us. I was still holding Jax rather firmly, after all.

“M-mast…” Jax stammered, and I glanced back down at her. And then my eyes widened.

If Arx had looked like she was having a little trouble, Jaxlooked like she was close to losing it entirely. Her eyes were unfocused and beginning to dilate, and her breath was starting to come in great heaving gasps. In fact, from the way she was leaning on me, I had a feeling that if I let her go, her legs might just collapse under her.

“S-so… so goo— Hah~!” she began before trying again, “T-touching m-me… Please…w-want!”

Whoops… forgot about that.

Jax being Jax, she was helpless aroused by my slightest touch whether I was actively flirting with her or not. And sometimes—though it had not happened in quite some time—she would get so far gone, she would even have trouble speaking, like her higher-order thinking skills would just switch off. When thathappened, she could get a tad… forceful.

I was still unclear on what the root cause of it was, but at least I could rule out hunger. I could still feel a steady flow of Life coming from her.

In fact, it was starting to get even stronger.

Jeez… just because I teased her a little bit, there’s no reason for her to fly off the—

<ding!>

…you have got to be kidding me. I barely even did anything. And since when did You start handing out generic skill-up notices, Bline?

As expected, She did not reply.

Still, it was not that surprising that I would eventually get something like this. It was a rare conversation these days that did not eventually turn to sex. My only companionship for a while now had been a couple of feminine creatures whose near every thought was how to get into my pants. And I did not even havepants.

Abruptly, the faint humming from across the room crescendoed into a wheezing sort of grunt, and when I looked, I found Arx hunched over with legs crossed, desperately suppressing the low moan fighting its way from her trembling lips, “Ahhhn~ yes…”

“Yes?” I prodded, after a moment. I could see that she had just had a slight climax, and from the skill she had been using, I assumed its triggering had been the cause. Why the two should be related, I could not say… other than because of coursethey would be.

Moreover, since I was holding Jax so close, I could practically feelthe effect her sister’s orgasm was having on her through our connection. With how far gone she already was, her mouth had gaped open at my chest, and she was breathing hotly enough through the fabric to create a damp spot. Slowly, she ran her hand up my stomach to lift it out of her way and began to gently growl and bite at me. Meanwhile, her other hand was practically trembling over my erection in her effort not to stimulate me with everything she had.

“Uhm…” Arx said after taking a moment to recover—though I could tell that she was struggling not to look at us. “Sorry, I uh… My skill, Thirst for Master’s Touch… it’s not very high yet, s-so I couldn’t resist all the… all the… tensionin here… and uh… and then trying to use C-cock Helps Me Think… like you asked… I lost control for a second.”

Jax gasped at the mention of that word, and her hand tightened against my own.

I nodded slowly, having already reached that conclusion… and trying veryhard to ignore the vixen-in-heat pawing at me. I could already feel my lust starting to surge uncontrollably from Jax’s skill, though whether she was losing patience or was doing it unconsciously, I could not say.

Before I even realized what I was doing, I unleashed a resounding swat to her backside.

Jax’s legs instantly buckled, and I had to struggle for several long seconds under her weight while she weptwith ecstasy. Meanwhile, poor Arx had been hit by such a blast of unrestrained euphoria that she had needed to collapse against one of the tiled seats just to withstand the echoes of her sister’s bliss.

“More~!” Jax pleaded wantonly.

“Not… before… we get… some heat in here,” I gritted from between my teeth. “Now stopthat!”

She clutched me tightly while she settled her weight back onto her own legs, trembling while she struggled to master herself. However eventually, she nodded against my chest, and her skill’s grip on me lessened. Not that she needed to push at me much anymore. By that point, I was seriously contemplating just throwing in the towel and performing a swan dive into that freezing abyss.

“Did the divining work?” I asked hopefully, addressing Arx again. “Did you figure something out?”

With her eyes closed, Arx nodded jerkily before gesturing to the far wall. “Y-yes, I… I think there’s a hidden panel there.”

So saying, she unsteadily rose to her feet and began tapping and pressing at various points at the spot. Eventually, her trembling fingers hit something, and the tile came away on a pair of hinges to reveal a knob. It was far less decorative than the rest of the room and a little dirty. It had the look of a thing meant for someone in the maintenance department to use.

Without wasting any time, she turned the knob several times, and a hissing sound filled the room. Within moments, steam filled the air from multiple vents set along the floor, and the temperature in the room quickly rose to an almost unbearable degree.

Sagging with relief, Arx began fumbling at the knots keeping her poncho tied.

Oh, I get it… it’s like some kind of sauna. And then the bathwater is for us to cool down.

The thought had barely crossed my mind when I felt a tug on the drawstring at my waist, and when I looked down, I found Jax unceremoniously tossing the garment to one side. Now that the obstruction was gone, my engorged manhood thumped right into the waiting gap between her thighs.

Slowly, her trembling stilled, and she looked up at me. When our eyes met, I found nothing there save great pools of darkness.

And then very distinctly, I felt her lower lips kiss me.

My breath caught, as I stared at her in amazement. Time had seemed to lose its grip on me. That moment had felt as a promise given life. Of great… greatpleasure.

I had known she had a degree of control over herself down there, but… Holy… fuck…

Suddenly, like a stack of dishes shattering to the floor in the middle of a crowded restaurant, there was a knock on the door behind me, and without waiting for an answer, the attendant barged in carrying a large stack of fresh towels.

“Sorry!” he said loudly. “The cleaning staff just finished in here, and I think they forget to turn on… the…”

He froze as he took in the scene in front of him.

Arx was somewhere in the middle of ripping off her top, having given up on working at the knots, and her breasts were swinging loose as she struggled to pull the thing over her horns. Meanwhile, there was an audible, squelching popas Jax’s vagina reflexively sucked my cock into itself in her surprise.

“Um…” he mumbled awkwardly. “M-maybe… maybe I should—”

“Maybe?!” Jax snarled, her face contorting with building rage. Fire practically shot from her eyes as she yelled, “Maybe ye should quit yer gawking and haul yer skinny ass outta here!”