Mending waters

John approached Lorelei and held her hand after putting his gauntlets in storage in the armor. The young seer looked like she was in the middle of a trance and he felt her body shiver as he touched her. Her blind, now glowing eyes were lost in the distance and her cheeks were reddening.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

"This place, it's powerful, it's linked to the very fabric of this kingdom and it's so… You. While meditating here I could see around and beyond. Our foe I can't see, but I can see its effects. It's in the mountains, the plains are almost clear and the forest is free of its taint," she said like she was reciting a prompt she had learned.

"Lorelei, I'm asking if you are well. This thing can wait," he said, placing his other hand on hers.

"John, I'm ok. But this is something dangerous for you, your loved ones and everything you have built. You already let me share in one of the Lady's boons, no need to concern yourself about me like that," she explained.

"Nonsense, I'm the one who brought you all here. Your well-being is my responsibility. I'm glad you're alright, you looked a bit off for a moment," he corrected her.

"Using the sight for so long in such a dynamic manner is taxing, but I'll recover. A nice bath in healing waters might do just the trick," she concluded.

John turned to Tricia who had gone back to taking care of the two girls that had suffered the most.

"How are Kim and Cali? Are they well enough to move?" he asked the healer.

"Give me a couple of minutes. Cali should be able to ride, but Miss Moon will need some help. It would be best if she rode with you on the quad, for stability. Could you please collect some intact specimens of these creatures for study while I deal with them?" Tricia asked him.

"For some value of intact. But I can try to get you a few whole bodies before harvesting them. You don't need the scarabs, right?"

"Correct, I have enough of those."

John put aside the mountain of notifications he had ignored during the fight; he would have all the time he wanted to read them while at the Glade. The lush tall grass of the plains surrounding the Sanctum was littered with the corpses of their attackers. Be they cut in half, smashed, poked with holes or still smoldering from being fried by lightning, a lot of the resources he could have harvested from those dead monsters had probably been destroyed.

First of all, Anna wouldn't be preparing any feast from the downed enemies like she could from regular animals of the kingdom. Each corpse had dropped either some corrupted flesh or corrupted biomass of the respective animal, lots of it with the burnt qualifier. He got a few hundreds of units of those, but the only reason he picked them up was to dispose of them and avoid having the regular wildlife eat them.

Finally, he found something interesting.

Rend-Crow talons: crafting material
The talons of these mutated crows of mysterious origins inflict extra damage to armor or clothing which will affect the material beyond the area hit, depleting durability. Can be used to craft items with the Armor Rending characteristic.

There were also beaks with the same description. They were of varying sizes but a lot would be sufficient to craft arrow or bolt heads for normal sized people or spear heads for Algernon's folks. He had scored more than 7 full stacks of these and he could see a lot of crafting in his near future. He had Tricia scan a bit of scarab carapace once cleaned of the flesh, and after it was deemed safe as a material, he looted a few stacks of those too to make more ratfolk armor.

Of the mutated blimp toads he wasn't able to find a single body to keep for study and even getting a body part was easier said than done. He found two very damaged webbed hands that the creatures used to propel themselves with, but the only other trace of them was the glittery dust residue that he would probably still deal with a month from now without a liberal application of his Clean spell on everything and everyone around him.

Drugsploder dust: crafting material.
This potent narcotic generated by the explosion of a mutated blimp toad has aphrodisiac, hallucinogenic and relaxing effects. It can be processed into **** through alchemy.

After Kim's skill, all he managed to gather was a small sample for Tricia to study, far from enough to use to craft anything with it. Moira was checking the vehicles and they were thankfully intact, if in need of a good cleaning. John helped with that while harvesting the creatures but they would need to get properly detailed later. He'd need to upgrade and expand the fleet of vehicles in the kingdom soon considering the number of people involved.

Another crafting material was harvested from the battlefield, this time from the strange winged serpents. Their fluffy pink furred skin, as nonsensical to be found on a creature half bird half reptile, was available as loot. There was little of it, barely 30 units, but probably enough to use in crafting, especially if used as a trim or on small items.

Snugglesnek fur: exotic crafting material
The incredibly soft fur of the lewd danger noodle can be used to craft items that increase charisma and libido and will trigger arousal when coming in contact with the fur.

The real surprise came with the last kind of item he looted. Amidst the mangled corpses on the grass field, he found small shiny discs which upon inspection turned out to be Arcadian Tokens, the golden coins (sadly not made of actual gold) that his vault converted his money into, with Anna's or his own face on one side of them. He had to check his inventory, call Anna and have her check with Dargon before being convinced that none of the treasury was actually missing and that the 696 tokens he had found were actually brand new ones. The fact that creatures in his kingdom could spawn loot that wasn't part of their own body was an interesting discovery; it hadn't happened with the normal scarabs. There seemed to be a distinction between the regular creatures of the kingdom and the hostile mutated beasts he had just fought.

"Are we ready to go?" he asked once he was satisfied that he had missed nothing.

"Miss Moon is still **** and I don't know why, but physically she's stable. We should hurry up and get her to the fountain," explained Tricia.

John felt more comfortable picking her up now that he knew it wouldn't hurt her. He sheathed her sword and put it in his inventory for ease of transportation, as he didn't know how the storage item she used to carry it worked. Then he lifted her limp body and brought her to the quad. In the end he got her wrapped around him in a hug with her facing him and her head resting on his shoulder. She might have objected to the intimate position but it was the safest way to drive with one hand without risking her falling on the way.

Moira, all battered that she was with her armor in tatters, insisted to be the one to drive her bike; Tricia got with her to continue tending to her wounds on the way. That left Cali and Lorelei on the small electric bike. John didn't drive as fast as he usually did considering he had an **** passenger and two vehicles following him; still, it wasn't a very long ride to the forest. Sylvia had kept a path open in the woods that led to the Glade without having to constantly dodge trees. He missed the dryad; she had been the first inhabitant of his kingdom and her absence was felt dearly.

He parked the quad a few meters away from the Fountain of Life, not wanting to disturb the almost sacred landmark with tire tracks. He managed to get off the quad while still holding Kim against him.

"This is her light!" exclaimed Lorelei, transfixed by the floating orb above the pool of the fountain. She was blind, but could see magic and auras. The life orb was bursting with enough energy to hurt John’s eyes if he looked at it too long and he couldn't imagine what it would look like to her.

"Newman, what the hell do you think you are doing!" screamed Moira. He had just removed his armor, storing it in his inventory before getting in the pool.

"Those are magical healing waters, as you know. They need contact with your body to work. Plus, it's silly to take a bath while clothed," he explained. Cali had already stripped down, putting away weapons and armor inside her ring.

"But do you have to be naked? You could wear a swimsuit," complained the Warden, unable to look away from his naked body.

"This was supposed to be a hunting trip, not some spa trip, so I don't have a swimsuit in my inventory. My armor works better if I don't wear anything underneath. Now that I think about it, I don't think I or anyone else has ever worn a swimsuit in this kingdom. I've already seen and been seen by everyone here naked anyway, it's not a big deal," he retorted.

"Don't say that like you are proud of it, pervert!" replied Moira.

"It appears from my studies that a general disregard for nakedness and tendency to go around without any clothes is an integral part of this kingdom's customs," explained Tricia in a clinical manner. She was not as comfortable with the whole group nakedness as her words implied, but not for the obvious reasons. She was more afraid of getting too excited and having her powers lash out than being seen naked. In fact, she hadn't even activated her camouflage since her appearance improved following her last bath in the fountain. But today's bonding experience called for some tweaking of her limiters.

"Look at him, he's hard!" pointed Moira.

"The non-human denizens of the place had never worn any clothes before joining it. And they as well as most of the human citizens regularly compete for the sexual favors of their King. This is a perfectly normal physiological reaction to the kind of stimulus he is exposed to for a boy his age," Tricia finished explaining while removing her clothes. She pointed to the naked caramel skinned elf who was helping Lorelei remove her bra. The seer didn't often bother with fashion; having rather small breasts, she often went without a bra when wearing robes, or wearing a training bra that didn't have a clasp like the one she had now.

"Lorelei! You too?"

"I was called here as a guest and an ally; one should follow local custom, especially in the presence of royalty. And a bath in waters infused with her light sounds wonderful right now," declared the seer as she removed her panties, setting them on the pile of her shoes, bra and summer dress. For all her brave words and actions, she was blushing. Cali, aware of her blindness and maybe with ulterior motives, had wrapped an arm around her to guide her into the water.

Very soon, after John stole the shredded clothes from Kim's body, Moira was the only one left wearing anything. Her armor was in shambles. The damned crows had eaten away all of her under armor, gouged a lot of the plates and she was even missing a few where straps had given up. To insist on wearing it in the fountain was sounding more and more ridiculous with the relaxed attitude most people here had with nudity. Letting go of a loud sigh, she began unstrapping the remains of her suit of armor.

"I can help with that," declared John. And before she could react, most of the leather straps were loosening themselves as if invisible hands were doing it. In a few seconds, her beautiful tits were freed of the constricting breastplate, the noble Warden wearing only the Oathkeeper, safeguarding her last bit of modesty.

"Don't you dare touch it. I don't trust you with that thing in range!" she warned John as she remembered how his thieving powers were able to completely bypass the tamper proof locks of the enchanted chastity belt by magically removing it from her body.

"As you wish. If you change your mind and want to relax in the water, just ask," he replied with a grin. She was convinced that he was wise enough to understand the dramatic ramifications of going too far with her, but not enough to push the envelope as far as he would think safe.

Cali had led Lorelei into the water and the blind blonde was marveling at the Orb of Life, too mesmerized by the aura to even enjoy the waters, it seemed.

John carefully descended the very convenient step like stones leading into the pool, still holding Kim, and sat on one of the seat shaped rocks on the side of it. What happened next was something new to him. The eerily shine of the magic water looked as if it drained towards Kim, without the water actually moving. Her body was hot and soon her skin began to exude some black gunk, almost as fast as John was able to use Clean on it to avoid having it pollute the water.

"What is happening?" he asked Tricia. "Is she poisoned or sick?"

"Not by anything that I could detect. If anything, it is a build-up of energy inside of her body," she replied.

After a few minutes of this, the magic of the water wasn't visibly draining into Kim any longer and the black substance had stopped appearing. Cali had found Lorelei a comfortable place to sit and was keeping her company, the two girls whispering to each other about something that kept the young seer blushing. Moira had found a spot to enjoy the healing effects of the water while still keeping a sulky face, which didn't manage to make her toned, naked body any less sexy. In fact, that kind of bratty attitude had an appeal to itself. Tricia was sitting right next to John with Kim laid down over their laps, her face and her nipples being the only things held above the water surface.

"John, you better have a good explanation for what I'm feeling down there," muttered Kim as she cracked her eyes open. His royal scepter had not gotten down a bit since Moira's remark earlier and was pressed against Kim's hip. Her skin was now immaculate, all the scraps and bruises from the battle, the dried blood, the weird black substance, everything had been healed or washed away by the waters of the fountain.

"You were ****, we didn't know why. We kept you in the fountain to heal and I needed to keep your head above the water or you'd drown," he explained.

"I received enlightenment during the fight and had a breakthrough in my cultivation. I needed to stabilize my Ki or I could have lost the benefits of it. It doesn't explain this though," she replied.

"I can assure you that John didn't take any liberties with you and that the current situation unfolded because of my advice and based on genuine concern for your condition. Nevertheless the presence of multiple attractive naked ladies in close proximity to his person tends to have that effect," pleaded Tricia.

"By enlightenment, do you mean when you leveled up?" John asked.

"I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that. I saw the annoying messages and had to focus on ignoring them. No wonder you can't keep your head straight while fighting with those popping up at any time. I gained a better understanding of many of the techniques that I know and I was able to unlock some acupoints on my meridians. What are Stat points? Can I really change my nature and foundation just because you invited me to this party of yours before the fight?" she asked him.

"I'm curious about that too. I have waited until she would wake up to prevent you from explaining multiple times. But what should I do with those points?" asked Moira, getting out of her silence while Kim got off from John, trying not to touch the hard rod pressing against her.

"Well, it will take a while, I guess. As most of you know, my powers are themed around video games. Stats are a way to essentialize and quantify your physical and mental status. I guess I should begin to explain what they represent. I have a huge bunch of notifications from that fight too. There's a way to hide them during fights, I'll show it to you in the menu for next time. So first you have Hp… " he said, beginning a comprehensive explanation of his stats and interface.

—-------

meanwhile in a cave of the Stoneridge mountains

A white cocoon stuck on the wall was cracking and after a while dropped some small creature on the ground. It looked like a cartoon squirrel with oversized eyes and front teeth, clad in pastel colored fur.

"Pfft, pfft, hahaha hahahaha, raaaaah, kill it!" screamed a mysterious figure after failing to stop itself from laughing. Instantly one of the five giant scarabs roaming the cave squished the little critter between its rounded mandibles before throwing the flattened corpse on a pile of dead animals and broken cocoons.

"Whyyy? What have they done to me? They almost all fail. Everything I create is lewd, stupid or grotesque. I don't need a squirrel that makes you laugh, a rabbit that makes you want to have a nap, venoms that are aphrodisiac or make you ticklish, nor rams with dicks almost as big as their bodies… I need an army: fangs, sharp claws, strong muscles, deadly poison, fire or magic. Anything but these!" raged the figure while punching another cocoon stuck to the wall.

The cave was only populated by two dozen living creatures at best, feeding on the pile of failed creations. The angry figure checked once again the last cocoons on the wall. It couldn't change the creatures of this place as it wanted to. Each of the creatures invariably changed into a single type of altered version which could barely be tweaked. And most of them were beyond useless, worse even than the original form for a lot of them.

Something was deeply wrong. It wasn't how their powers should work; there was something off with this place…. or themselves.

"I couldn't guess that the master of this place had such powerful allies… The handful of creatures I have left will be meaningless where so many have failed." The figure grabbed a golden item being crudely fashioned by the strong mandibles of the two largest scarabs left and equipped it.

"Fine, I'll do it myself!" it declared to the unthinking minions in the cave.