The Lantern's Guiding Light

Muma covers her ears again and groans as the voices speak, but she at least seems to be handling it slightly better than last time, "Ugh... Still so loud..." she whines, "hngh... Okay... Okay, thanks to those who uh... apparently tried to whisper, it doesn't seem to have actually had any effect, but thanks for trying?" she mumbles as she slowly slides her hands away from her ears, once she's pretty sure all the voices have finished. Yulia gestures for Cherchiel to take the lead again as they head down the lantern lit path. Cherchiel does so and they continue forward. The path leads into a small clearing that seems to have been intentionally cleared to make way for the apple orchard that is growing in the clearing. Bright red apples hang on rows of trees and Muma flies off of Yulia's head to land on the branch of the tree.

"See, nice juicy fruit! The people who planted these won't mind, they're aware that their work is intended for the chosen, so feel free to take what you need!" she exclaims cheerfully and grabs an apple in both hands, struggling a bit to tear it off the branch. She then sits on the branch cradling the apple in her lap as she bites into the apple, which is of course the same size as her. Yulia and Cherchiel watch her bite into the apple and seem to take this as a sign the food probably isn't poisonous. The two begin to set about picking apples.

"So, let me explain things a bit better since there seem to still be some questions," Muma states after finishing her bite of apple, her face is practically coated with the apples juices and she looks ecstatic, clearly enjoying the sweet taste. "first of all, to the weirdly butt obsessed voice, I have no intention of crawling into anyone's butt and as far as I'm aware, the last guide was eaten alive," she hesitates, "which I guess means she did technically end up in a butt eventually, but she certainly didn't enter that way," she explains, seeming somewhat offended.

"Hey, Yulia, there's a little herb garden over here as well," Cherchiel calls out and Yulia glances over to see that indeed at the edge of the orchard a tiny herb garden is growing.

"Muma, are these safe to take as well?" she asks and Muma glances over.

"Hmm? Oh yeah anything in a lantern area is here for you, take what you need," she says and Cherchiel begins to gather herbs as Yulia continues to gather apples.

"I never thought my ears were sensitive, but I guess they might be," Muma wonders idly before taking another bite of the apple and chews it, the juices leaking down from her chin, dripping onto her breasts, "Cherchiel is the chosen's friend, right? Well if she stood guard, she wouldn't really be a deterrent, but at the very least she'd be able to warn the chosen if something was coming, might be useful, especially since well... I'm afraid my presence isn't going to keep the floor monster away, that's unfortunately the only real benefit Dreg has that no one else does, still I feel that level of protection is hardly an excuse to put up with having him around, right?" she says and then shivers, "ahh I'm gonna be all sticky after this... I'll need to wash..." she notes as she looks down at herself, "I promise that there is absolutely an icky gross monster in those caves and we don't want to deal with it," she hastily reiterates, "normally each floor is separated into areas, for instance the rest area is one area, the forest path we just left is another, the cave entrance another, but this lantern area simply counts as part of the forest path. This distinction between areas, or rooms I suppose you could call them although that title will become more and more inaccurate as you go on, is only really important in regards to the floor monster. The floor monster travels between rooms or areas you see, but if you're in an area like the lantern area that technically counts as part of the area, if the floor monster enters the area you're technically in while you're in the lantern room, you can avoid it, because you count as being both in the room and not in the room," she explains, "there's a few other minor effects this has, but as I understand it you'll never really have to worry about those, suffice to say that entering something like the lantern area doesn't count as moving to a new area or room," she finishes, "I can definitely inform you when you are in fact moving from one area to another if you'd like, each area even has a specific name so, I can tell you that as well," she adds.

She takes another bite of the apple and then rolls it off her lap, letting it fall to the floor of the clearing and she pats her stomach, "mmm, so good," she says and then grins, "as for loopholes, I'm more than happy to try and bend the rules as much as I can, I mean the more knowledge I can impart to you the likelier I get to stay alive, so, win/win in my book!" she says with a quick nod, "I will say in regards to you voices, I definitely don't trust you, not that I think you'll intentionally screw me, but I don't like knowing I'm going to have to convince you all as well, in order to ensure my survival, especially since I'm not allowed to just make the case for myself clearly," she explains with a shrug.

"Oh!" she says suddenly standing up, "one of you asked about the coin room, right? That's Alide's Shop! It's deeper in the forest, very deep in fact, we should head right there," she says enthusiastically.

Yulia and Cherchiel move over and Muma flies back onto Yulia's head, "We're all done collecting stuff here so I suppose we can go," Yulia agrees.

"Alright then, back to the forest path and we'll go down the other path now, also nice try to the one who suggested it, but the lanterns just point out special areas, they have no power of their own, bringing them with you will not move the 'lantern area'" Muma explains with a sad shake of her head.

The three leave the orchard and return to the forest path which leads forward deeper into the forest, or back towards the camp, as soon as they leave the lantern area however, the lantern suddenly vanishes and the trees seem to move closing off the path and within moments there is no sign the path to the orchard ever existed, "lantern areas are one use and will disappear after use, but some actions may make them reappear or make new ones appear," Muma helpfully explains.

Yulia seems a bit unsettled by the sudden changing of the forest, but nods. Muma looks thoughtful, "before we wait for the voices, we should go forward a little bit, we won't be leaving the area, but there is something further down the forest path, the voices should see before they make their next decisions," she says and with a little hesitation, Yulia and Cherchiel head deeper down the forest path. Muma tells them to stop a bit further along. Here there is another split in the path. Two paths diverging. One goes to the right and there's a smattering of bones on the path, the other path is more normal, but bears traces of recent footprints, humanoid footprints.

"There, now the voices can make an informed choice if they decide to go forward, there's two ways forward from the forest path, the path with the bones and probable imminent **** and the other path that has people down it, probably friends," she says with a nod.

Yulia seems to be staring nervously at a skull on the bone path, it's disturbingly small and she hopes that it's from some kind of tiny creature and not the alternative.

(Health: 200%

Mana: 100%

Equipment: Ceramic Beaked Mask, Monastic Scapular, standard bra, Standard Panties, 3 poison gas grenades, 3 healing kits, 1 syringe of poison, 1 syringe of adrenaline, 1 syringe of poison antidote, 1 sewing kit, 1 vial of unknown liquid, 8 days worth of rations, 4 two liter water jug, 1 health potion, 1 mana potion, A boar mask, 2 vials of sticky white liquid, Ornate Rapier, 4 arrows, Quiver, God's Favour (Halo), 1 pouch of alchemical ingredients, 1 sack of cooking ingredients (Apples).

Spells known: Great Heal (Lvl 2, Mastered, Cost: 25%)

Great Cure (Lvl 2, Mastered, Cost: 15%)

Energize (Lvl 1, Mastered, Cost: 25%)

Icicle (Lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 15%)

Unlock (Lvl 1, Unmastered, Cost: 15%)

Repair (Lvl 1, Mastered, Cost: 5%-20% depending on factors).

Fetish: Bondage Rank: 1, Masochism Rank: 1,

Status Effect: Permanent increase to physical attribute. Combat level raised to medium

Psychosexual Break: In order to deal with her trauma, Yulia has begun to subconsciously fetishize her experiences.

Deflowered: Virginity Lost, sexual experience changed to: Inexperienced, non-virgin.

Companion: Cherchiel

https://forum.chyoa.com/threads/the-tower-of-voices-voting-thread.3460/ )