Assessing Risk and New Gear

Mark awoke in a rather strange position. Samantha and he had transformed while they slept and coiled around one another. Goddess above, her scales on mine feel fantastic. I could get used to being a dragon. Mark nipped at Samantha’s horn, waking her up.

She hissed at him and said, “What was that for?”

“I don’t know. It just felt right. We’ll have to talk to Smug about dragon mating habits.”

Sam slinked out of bed, reverting to her humanoid form as she did. She donned her gear and turned to Mark, “I’m going to go when the bubble pops. I want to give Laura some time with you since she didn’t get to have fun last night.” Samantha opened the door and waited.

“You mind inviting her in? I want to surprise her.” Mark said as he flew up above the door, ready to pounce on Laura when she entered.

“Sure, I’ve done the same thing with Allie.” It took a few more minutes, but the bubble popped in short order. Samantha stepped out of the room and told the waiting Laura. “He’s all yours. I promise, I didn’t wear him out too much for you.”

Laura stood up and caught Sam’s arm before she walked away. “Sam, tell me you two didn’t…”

“Laura, a few things. One, we did not have sex, but we did do sexual stuff together. Two, Mark bought both of us something from the BP store to delay the effects of the desserts, so we weren’t under the effects of them while in the bubble. Finally, I appreciate the concern, I really do, but you worry too much. Have fun with him.”

Laura let go of Sam as she walked off. Laura then went into the room. She looked around and called out, “Mark!? You in the—ooph!” She was tackled to the ground from behind. She felt the dragon scales against her skin, “Sam! Really? What gives?” Laura turned beneath the dragon on top of her, and she became confused. What the fuck? A black dragon? Is that a penis? “Mark? Is that you?”

Mark reverted his form. “Hello there.” Mark gave her a kiss.

“Mind getting off of me?”

Mark obliged. As Mark helped Laura to her feet, she examined his new features. Black dragon horns coming out of his forehead, a long black scaled tail, and scales running the length of his arms. “I thought you would be eager to get a piece of me still.”

Laura brushed herself off. “Eh… Talia and I had an argument while you were in here. Kind of killed my mood a little. Also, the bed hardly looks fit to use. What happened?”

Mark examined the bed, and he saw what she meant. There were slashes in the mattress, pillow feathers everywhere, and the sheets were in tatters. “Sam and I… might have gone a little overboard.”

“When you turned into a dragon?” Mark nodded. “Speaking of that, how did you become a dragon? I thought Mary changed.”

“I just copied the TF, making me a dragon.”

“Interesting, I wonder what sort of God you would end up as.”

“You sure you don’t want a round or two?”

“Sorry, Mark, no. Did you buy anything in the store? Besides the thing to delay the desserts’ effects.”

“No.” Mark felt the effects of the desserts return. “Which, honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t.” Mark started to pull out his phone, but Laura grabbed his wrist.

“Please, don’t, Mark. Not right now. Your inhibitions just dropped, didn’t they?”

“Noooo… Okay maybe. It isn’t really that big of a deal, Laura.”

“If it isn’t a big deal, then why did you feel the need to lie to me?”

“Laura, I don’t want to fight right now. Want to come with me to get some breakfast? I assume yes, since I’m guessing you are going to escort me until this evening.” Mark didn’t wait for a response and started to walk towards the great hall.

Laura sighed, I am going to strangle Sally if I ever meet her, and Ellen is in for one major punishment when I get my hands on her. Laura followed Mark. Slightly intrigued by his new tail.

---

Allie and Isabella were getting dressed as Talia reentered the room. Isabella said, “Welcome back.” (Would have been nice if you didn’t wake us up for a booty call)

Talia noticed that Isabella wasn’t pleased with her. “Sorry if I woke you early. It was rather important.”

Isabella responded in a polite tone, “I’m sure.” (Yeah, I bet worshiping your new deity is important.)

Talia frowned while looking at Isabella. She noticed text hovering nearby that looked like subtitles. “Isabella, seriously, I’m sorry. Yes, I was worshiping Laura, and that is important. Though I was doing it because Laura figured out a way to bypass Mark’s and Sam’s incapacitation for the day.”

“Really? That’s awesome!” Allie exclaimed. “Though Isabella didn’t mention anything about worshiping Laura. Why did you get defensive about it?”

“Her body apparently has subtitles.”

Isabella’s eyes went wide in disbelief. (OH YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!) “Seriously! So not only Mark, but you can also hear my body?”

Talia shook her head. “No. Like I said, it has subtitles. I have to actually read them, and I will say they didn’t appear at lunch yesterday or afterwards, when Mark was clearly hearing your body. So it likely isn’t all the time.”

“Small mercies at least.”

Allie asked, “So, how did you and Laura resolve the issue with Mark and Sam?”

“They are currently in a time bubble that will last a whole day from their perspective. One minute for us is one hour for them. So by the time we were all going to meet in the hall for breakfast and plan for the day, they should be good to go.”

Isabella asked, “So let me get this straight. Sam and Mark are stuck in an enclosed space for essentially a whole day, while Mark has low to no inhibitions, and Sam is fantasizing about him fucking her senseless. Is that about right? Laura was okay with that? Because I’m still pissed at her for yesterday.”

Talia sighed, “Isabella, trust me, I know. Laura wasn’t pleased. I also chewed her out a bit. Allie, can you tell me something? Why haven’t you been monitoring Mark or Sam like at all?”

“Simple, because when I told Mark to alter Sam’s lists, he instantly complied. I saw his expression; he won’t do anything with Sam while under the influence of the desserts.”

“What about the rest of us? You don’t seem concerned about Mark taking Isabella here to get a blowjob from her, nor do you seem concerned that I desperately want to do things with him.”

Allie shrugged, “Isabella liked Mark and had already mentioned to me she had considered having sex with him on our last date night. It didn’t happen, but she had been up for it. As for you… Talia, even with the change to your BTGGF TF, I am still very much willing to help you. Meaning that you actively want to be Mark’s wife, and have not simply accepted that you will eventually marry him. Plus, I’m pretty sure that anything that happens between you and Mark right now is something you will find incredibly arousing after the fact. The only thing I’m even moderately worried about is that Mark will buy something from the BP store today and end up regretting it later.”

Talia nodded, “Well, would you be willing to watch him some today. I fear Laura is going to blow a gasket from stressing about this.”

Allie let out a long sigh, “Sure. I don’t think he needs it, but sure.”

“Thanks.” Talia collapsed face-first on the bed.

“You okay?” Allie walked over and sat down next to Talia, putting a hand on her back.

“Yes… no… I’m not sure. Like I said, I chewed Laura out, which is making me feel really weird.”

“What did you say to her exactly?”

“Essentially, I accused her of being a hypocrite.”

Isabella walked over, crossed her arms, and looked down at Talia. (Sigh, I thought she was supposed to be a genius.) “What did you actually say to her?”

“Well, she kept saying that she was concerned about Sam, but that wasn’t what I saw. She was concerned about Mark. I said as much too. I also told her I was upset because she had been worried about Mark doing something to Sam, but didn’t seem to have any problem dragging me off to have sex. It isn’t like the fantasies Sam and I are having are limited to just being about Mark.”

Isabella rolled her eyes (God, she’s thick.) “Those aren’t the same situations, though. Tell me, did you and Laura do anything you haven’t done before?”

Talia glanced up at Isabella. “No…”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so. I will say being upset with her is reasonable, but it isn’t because she took you to have sex. It’s because she didn’t consider you doing something foolish. I’m willing to bet your list of things to confess is huge right now, and the desserts amplified it.”

Talia nodded. “I’m just glad that praying to Laura apparently counts as a confession, but that only buys me time.”

Allie frowned, “Is that why chewing her out bothers you? Because you view her as a goddess?”

“She is my goddess. It isn’t a matter of my viewing it like that; That is what she is.”

“That’s what I meant. You were essentially scolding your goddess right after having sex with her, and having an argument with your significant other is never fun either.”

Isabella scoffed while smirking and crossing her arms. “I don’t know about never.” (I wouldn’t mind getting into something heated with Mark.)

Talia read what her body was saying and laughed.

Isabella furrowed her brow. (Now I’m getting annoyed on Talia’s behalf.) “Talia, if I wanted to do something with you right now, would you let me?”

Allie glared at Isabella. “What… Isabella, that's a hypothetical, only right?”

“Yes.” Isabella shifted and looked over Talia. (Not that Talia isn’t adorable.)

Talia narrowed her eyes and shifted between looking at the text near Isabella and her face. “I have self-control. I’m not just going to—”

“Talia, if I offered you the rest of the bowl of candies that Allie and I have right now, would you take them?” (I bet she would)

Talia gulped, clearly hesitating and biting her lip. “N-n-n-noooo?”

“That sounded like a question.”

“It might have been?”

“Isabella, could you stop teasing her? We aren’t giving you those candies anyway, Talia.” Allie said, trying to divert the conversation.

(Duh, of course we won’t give them to her) Isabella gave Allie a disbelieving look. “I’m just trying to figure out how bad things are for her. Talia, this illustrates my point, though. Laura not being concerned about this is why you should be mad at her. Not because the two of you did stuff while you were magically impaired.”

Talia nodded, “Are you sure I can’t have one of those candies? Just one?”

“Yes!” Allie exclaimed. Allie grabbed Talia by the ear. “Talia, I’m already going to be watching Mark at your request. Spend some time with Laura, but I'd best not find out that you are over-indulging your fantasies, and screw us this round. I want to make something clear. We are winning, and our Mark/Mary is going to win. You’ve already bought a lot of goodwill with me by getting Mark and Sam both back into things. Don’t squander it by doing something stupid or reckless.”

“Ow. Ow. Ow.” Allie let go of Talia’s ear. “Okay, I got it. When did you get so competitive?”

A little threateningly, Allie said, “Talia, let me make this clear. There are currently… huh, guess that needs to be revised. There are currently four people whom I actually accept doing anything with Mark, besides myself. Two of them are in this room, and I’m dating one of the others. Slevia made me realize how much I REALLY don’t like having to share Mark except on my terms. It ticks me off that Laura and Chloe don’t want to marry Mark, but are sleeping with him. Honestly, I can see why Cassandra thought I needed this TF because it would have been rough if I hadn’t gotten it. I tolerate everyone else because I’m not blind to reality, but if I could throw everyone but those four out of the harem without consequences to them. I would do so in a heartbeat, and I would tell Mark I’m not okay with him continuing a relationship with them. Also, unlike you, not all of us would be okay with harsher TFs. I’m Mark’s wife, and I am sick and tired of placing low.”

“Um… got it. Isabella… your girlfriend is a little scary sometimes.”

Allie reached out and gently placed her hand on Talia’s face. “If you’re just figuring that out now, then you haven’t been paying close enough attention.”

---

Sadie had run into Samantha in the halls, and the two had gone to the task board together.

“I’m confused, Sam. What do you mean you can do stuff today? I thought you had to rest for a day.”

“Yeah, the short answer is Talia used time magic to fix the problem. Mark isn’t down today either.”

“Hmm… well, that changes my plans slightly.”

“Care to share?”

“I had planned on us just trying to rack up as much empire merit today as possible to get items for everyone. That is still the plan, but if we have everyone, then we can also worry about gaining a bunch of XP too.”

“Shouldn’t that have been a priority anyway?”

“A bit, but if you and Mark had lagged behind us significantly in levels, then we would either risk you getting incapacitated again or doing easier things so you two aren’t overwhelmed.”

The two finally entered the courtyard and were greeted by multiple wagons that had stalls nearby them, and Slevia was standing behind the main stall.

Sadie pointed, “Guess that is the BP store.” Sadie ignored it, not having any BP to spend. Samantha took a step away from Sadie and towards the BP store, but Sadie grabbed Samantha’s arm and pulled her towards the task board. “No, Sam. You shouldn’t go buy stuff right now.”

She didn’t resist the pull, but Samantha did respond. “Mark and I went over things in the time bubble Talia made. We weren’t under the effects of the desserts either.”

“Don’t care. I would also like help looking at the tasks.”

Samantha just nodded while they looked through the tasks. There was a priority quest to deal with the mad cow-girl outbreak, some more kill quests, oddly, an arena tournament, along with a few escort and transport quests. Samantha said, “I think we’ve been reading the task notices wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it doesn’t say how many people are needed for any of these.”

“Take the slime quest we took two days ago.”

“That was yesterday, Sam.”

“My bad, you’re right. It said the risk was medium. Did you really feel like we were in significant danger at any point?”

“Not really.”

“Me neither. Plus, it would make a certain level of sense that we should be able to do our own things. At least some of the time. I’m wondering if the risk level is more of an indication of how many people we should be bringing.”

“I mean, do you think you could have soloed the slime quest?”

“It would have taken longer for sure, but I would also have probably leveled before fighting the slime queen. So maybe? I think if I had anyone else but you with me, I could have.” Sadie made a displeased face at the insinuation that she wasn’t useful. Samantha immediately shook her head, seeing Sadie’s disappointment. “Sadie, I think you’ve done an amazing job so far. It isn’t a matter of thinking you aren’t valuable. We just don’t synergize with one another. I think Allie and Isabella could have soloed that quest eventually, and with anyone else’s help, including yours, it would have been much easier.”

“I guess…”

“This arena quest is the real reason I think we’ve been misreading the risk assessments.”

Task: Arena Solo Fighting Tournament

• Risk: Very Low
• Reward: Variable depending upon results. Primarily Empire Merit
• The Empire is looking for skilled combatants to help fight the forces of Smug. Enter single elimination bouts; the further you progress in the tournament, the greater your prize. Arena has a warding that helps prevent incapacitation.
• Time Limit: Enter by Noon

“Something tells me that this isn’t an easy quest, simply one that I can participate in and walk away from without incapacitation. I thought it was somewhat odd how the challenge was being scored. But it makes a lot more sense if we assume that we aren’t all doing the same quests. Otherwise, you and Flora essentially get to decide the placement of people on each team.”

“Are you recommending that we split up then?”

“Or take quests with a much higher risk rating.”

“We were able to manage a high-risk task, down you, Mark, and Bertha, with only some difficulty. I guess if the risk is being incapacitated, we would still want to be safe about it, but we could split into two or three groups then.”

Samantha nodded. “That is what I’m thinking, especially since we need to find their base. Ours was obvious. Theirs not so much, but I also think that if we find their base, they will end up screwed, if it is early enough.”

“Well, I wanted to find it to rescue Ethel anyway,” Sadie responded with determination.

“I think that’s a mistake.”

“I don’t care. I won’t endanger the team’s success, but if I can advance that objective while also helping the team, that is what I plan on doing.”

“At least you are considering the team.”

“I take it by the fact you are holding that arena quest still, that you want to do it?”

“I think so. If that’s cool with you?”

“Depends on what everyone else wants, but yeah, that is probably fine. Care to join me in looking at stuff to spend our faction merit on?”

“My pleasure, just let me stop by the BP store first.”

“Sam… are you absolutely sure?”

“Come with me, I’ll show you what I’m looking at.”

The two walked over to Slevia, who greeted them in a thick russian accent. “AH! CUSTOMERS!” She boomed. “SPLENDID! SPLENDID! Let Slevinia show you what she has brought you today! Many fine wears! Check magic crystal here for my stock!”

Samantha tapped on the crystal and pulled up the BP store interface. She quickly tabbed to her limited store. “Here, I was considering these two, primarily because they have little to no downside.” Samantha showed Sadie the two TFs that she didn’t get from the second round.

“I don’t see why you need to get these right now, though.”

“Well, both would help me with Mark. Flower of Adversity needs time to build up anyway, so earlier is better. Trusted Fixer, on the other hand, seems pure benefit.”

“I don’t know, something bugs me about Trusted Fixer. Don’t you have a list of compulsions? Is there something that might interact with this? Plus, what counts as a situation? I would be careful about that one. As for Flower of Adversity, are you happy with your new curves?”

Sam furrowed her brow, “What has my curves got to do with that?”

“Well, you might have gotten used to the difference already, but I got the introductions placed into my head not that long ago. The difference between what you looked like then and now isn’t small. I can also say that you went from being somewhat attractive to stunning. The question is, how are you supposed to become ‘more beautiful’? Personally, I would guess that anything Mark perceives as a flaw in your appearance will change. So if he would like you with bigger breasts…”

“Hmm… That’s a good point. Sadie, I want to apologize. Because of your high voice, somewhat bratty attitude, and the use of the word ‘daddy’ despite being over thirty, it sort of made me think you weren’t that smart. But you’ve been here only a couple of days and already have a firm grasp on how tricky some of these TFs can be.”

Sadie pitched her voice up even higher and put on a beaming smile. “Oh, like you mean I sound like a total bimbo? That I’m daddy’s little girl who doesn’t know like how the real world works?” Sadie’s expression changed nearly instantly back to normal, as did her voice. “Yeah, I get that. I’ve absolutely used that assumption against people before. I also have to read over contracts and scientific publications all the time. So, nuanced wording is something I have quite a bit of experience detecting.”

“Thanks for being understanding.” Samantha turned to Slevia. “Slevia, I have—”

“SLEVINIA! Sle-vi-ni-a, not S-lev-ia. I told you name.”

Samantha took a deep breath, “Okay, Slevinia. I have a couple of questions for you. Do you have any recommendations for me?”

Slevia shook her head. “No, you have already found what I would recommend, based upon your funds.”

“I figured, but wanted to ask. Second, seriously. What. The. Fuck? Why did you have Mark upgrade his points TF?”

“Because is smart. Has discount, greater income, and flexibility. He should upgrade again.”

Samantha replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “Yeah, and when he buys the identity rewrite, while his mind is fucked with, or decides that he just might want to have the complete set of sextuplets instead of just one, how is that smart?”

“Mark would not do. Mark is good man.”

“Generally I agree, but—”

“No buts, Samantha. Mark wouldn’t.”

Sadie asked, “How can you be so sure?”

“I’m sure. Mark might add one or two. He would not buy rewrite.”

“You can’t possibly know that. Without any inhibitions, what’s stopping him?” Samantha asked.

“Simple. It is too complete. Too fast. Too final. Mark isn’t interested in that. Can’t say more.”

Samantha shook her head. “Fine, we’ll agree to disagree.”

“No. Will not agree to disagree. You are simply wrong.”

Sadie gently grabbed Samantha’s arm. “How about we go before you get upset?” The two walked off to look at magic items for the party.

---

Everyone met up to have breakfast together in the great hall. After everyone was seated, Sadie started going over what she thought they should do for the day. “Sam and I looked over the merit options and made a tentative list of things we are going to get. After breakfast, I’ll give everyone an hour to look over the options and the suggested tasks, but unless you find something particularly useful or want to swap something that is for you for something else, I’ll finalize the request. We have the merit to get each person about three upgrades. As far as tasks, Sam has a theory that I would like to test immediately after we get our equipment. Specifically, the risk assessment on the quests is dependent on the number of us we need to do the task and not suffer an incapacitation. So I have picked two quests. The first one is a low risk, which, based upon the risk levels, is likely either a one or two-person task, since there are both very low and trivial risk tasks. The other is a high-risk task. The tasks shouldn’t take too long, but we will be holding multiple people back to see how few we can accomplish a task with. Assuming those go like I hope everyone but Sam will be going on a very high-risk task this afternoon.”

“Why not, Sam?” Laura asked.

“I found a quest I want to take that should take up most of the afternoon. Mark, I'll need you to alter my lists, though.” Mark just nodded and continued eating.

“Any other questions?” Sadie asked.

“What are the tasks?” Laura said.

“There is apparently a giant rat infestation that has popped up in the city. That’s the low-risk task. Then there is a request to clear the eastern forest of monsters. The empire wants to set up a barricade to prevent the spread of mad cow-girl, but the monsters in the forest will make that an issue. Finally, the very hard task is aligning a ley line node at the bottom of an ancient temple of some sort.”

“Okay, the first two I understand, they are conveniently nearby to test the risk rating system, but why the last one?” Talia asked.

“Because of the reward. Part of it will allow the empire to start narrowing down where Smug’s lair is.”

Samantha continued Sadie’s explanation. “The entire point of these tasks is to free up resources for the empire to help us locate the lair. I think if we don’t locate the lair in time, we simply lose by default. Maybe it will become obvious on the last day or something, but I’m not sure.”

Breakfast passed fairly quickly after that discussion. After everyone looked over what Samantha and Sadie had selected and the options available for purchase, most items remained the same. Allie had a few suggestions for changes, though. Allie wanted to exchange the upgrade to her claws to make them deal more damage that Sam had chosen, for an upgrade that would give her greater reach and cleaving potential. Allie also got a ring of regeneration that would slowly restore her HP over time, and an enhancement to her armor, which caused her midriff and thighs to become more exposed.

Samantha got a better shield, armor, and, on Allie’s advice, a shiny stone that allegedly provided ‘good luck’ if kept on your person. For both Laura and Talia, Sadie had instead of buying three upgrades for them bought one higher-tier upgrade for each of their staffs. It allowed Laura and Talia to put more mana into their spells than normal for greater effect. Mark got a feather for his hat that had a similar effect to the stone Samantha got, a ring of impact absorption, and an ability recharge stone that would let him gain an extra use of three separate abilities once per day. Isabella wasn’t as pleased with one of her upgrades, though, but couldn’t find anything she would rather have. She received an upgrade, making her weapons weightless to her, causing her to be able to swing faster, a dog collar that made her appear more harmless than she actually was, and silk slippers that increased her base movement speed.

Isabella asked Sadie, “So what did you get?”

Sadie and Samantha looked at one another. Sadie said, “I… don’t want to talk about it.” Sadie’s face flushed bright pink.

Samantha said, “Isabella, just leave it be.”

Isabella begrudgingly dropped the questioning, but noticed a gold cage hanging from Sadie’s hip. They were off to slay some giant rats.