Chapter 12
by 
hemelwijs
Which button do you press?
The YES button.
I press the YES button, and the window disappeared. A tingle starts to flow through my body and rapidly spreads to every nerve ending I have. A second later, my sight goes white. When it returns, I am no longer in the tranquil valley that was floor nine. Instead, I stood on a cobblestone path, leading to the two-story house I saw in the globe.
The warm midday sun had changed to a moonless night. The chirping of birds was replaced with the sound of crickets. And the soothing sounds of the stream flowing nearby filled the surroundings, occasionally interrupted by the creaking of the waterwheel as it slowly turned in the waters flow. A soft breeze stirred the grass of the lawn in front of the house, and a few leaves tumbled by.
After I looked around, I made my way towards the house, knowing that that was where the bonus level would play out. I made it to the front door before the now familiar screen informed me of my objectives.
The midnight break-in.
The owner of this house disappeared a few days ago, and you can resist the temptation no longer. Enter the house, and collect what valuables you can.
Victory conditions: Concentrate on leaving the floor with whatever you gathered.
Losing conditions: None unless you manage to screw up.
Rewards: Plenty. You just have to find them; this is a bonus level after all.
Closing the window, I hesitantly reach for the doorknob. Surely the front door can't be unlocked? With a "click", the door unlocks, and slowly swings open without a sound.
I look at Adea hovering at my side.
"Well, I guess getting in is going to be easy."
I received a feeling of agreement, and the two of us carefully entered the house. Not knowing what to expect, I decided to use my, so far, unused stealth skill.
The moment I thought about it, I felt the skill activate. I instinctively adjusted my posture to become less noticeable and appear less threatening, and my steps become lighter as I concentrate on making less noise. On the HUD that is always a part of my vision, a set of new indicators appear. A black gem, identified as a light indicator. A speaker with several bars, all empty, the noise indicator. And an eye, the sight indicator, currently it showed a green one, indicating that one friendly person could see me. I also noticed, that my armour was slowly changing its colour from the limestone grey of the temple city, to the colour of the walls around me.
"Neat."
I carefully began to walk down the hallway deeper into the house. About three meters from the door, a stair ascends to the second floor, to my left, a doorway leads into what looks to be the living room.
"Well, good adventurers go left," I mumble to myself.
Suddenly the oppressive silence is shattered by the loud slamming of wood on wood. In a flurry, I turn to the front door, weapon drawn. My heart pounds against my chest as I try to see in the dim light.
Amusement fills my mind, and I see Adea fly towards me. Remembering the words from only a few minutes ago, I address it as it begins to flutter around me.
"Tricks and pranks, eh? I guess you thought that was funny? Please don't scare me like that again."
Adea looks at me with a look suggesting I'm stupid for even asking it, and it just flies off towards the living room, not even deigning me with a response.
Sighing to myself, I follow after it.
The living room was sparsely furnished. For a house that looked pretty from the outside, the interior was surprisingly spartan. The room was filled with furniture that you expected, but the quality was mediocre at best and poor at worse.
Against one wall, the remains of a machine could be seen, a few stray pieces making sounds of straining metal as they turned, powered by the wheel outside.
As I looked around the room, my eye fell on a bag resting on the large table. Inspecting it revealed it was filled with various coins. Guessing it was close to fifty gold, I transferred it to my inventory where it was quickly totalled up to forty-eight gold.
Happy with my first find, I was alerted to something when a rush of happiness entered my mind. When I followed the rush to its source, I saw Adea hovering in front of the fireplace.
Mounted on the wall was a wooden plaque, and on that was a beautifully carved short bow.
It was made from a combination of deep green, and dark red, the arms curled back elegantly, and a waxed string hung loosely between the arms. All across the bow, patterns and spirals were carved into the wood. The only exception was the middle, where a band of soft leather was wrapped around it to form the grip.
Short bow (Normal quality)
A bow of standard design and quality. Carefully crafted to appear appealing, but otherwise normal.
The first range is up to 30 meters.
The second range is thirty-one to one hundred meters.
Average damage, upgradeable, enchantable.
I gently take it from the wall and look it over. The wood gleams in the limited light, and it is remarkedly light in my hands.
"Nice, I guess this is mine now. Makes the elemental arrow skill a lot more useful."
As I admire the bow, the silence of the house is broken by a sound. I concentrate on my surroundings, and soon I hear it again, a soft meowing. Thinking the now disappeared owner had a cat, I think nothing of it. It sounded like it came from above, so I would look into it when I was finished here.
Further investigating the room revealed a book laying on a small table near the couch. It was worn out, and the pages were dirty and torn at places. But when I leafed through it, I realised that this was another skill book.
Throwing weapons.
This skill book will give you the knowledge and skill required to use throwing weapons more effectively. Alternatively, if you are a magic user, it will provide you with the spectral blades skill. Hybrid classes can benefit from both.
Learn? YES/NO.
"Oh, I'm definitely learning this."
I pressed the yes button, and knowledge filled my mind about using all kinds of throwing weapons. Suddenly, the somewhat strange grip of my throwing knives made more sense, now that I knew why it was shaped that way. Additionally, I learned a way to channel my limited magical energies to form blades of arcane energy and use those as throwing weapons
.
New skill learned: Spectral blades.
Allows the user to create throwing weapons out of magical energy. At higher levels, these do more damage, as well as gaining the option to be imbued with various magical effects.
I nodded when I read that, a useful skill to have. Further investigating the living room resulted in nothing worth taking with me, so I moved into the adjacent room: the kitchen. It was well stocked, the food staying fresh by the all too common video game logic, Some cheap bottles of wine, and a few ingredients I could have used if I had the cooking skill. All, in all, a boring room. The rest of the ground floor was equally empty of interesting items, and my disappointment was mirrored by the feelings of boredom radiating from Adea.
Having cleared the ground floor, it was time to head upstairs. When I started climbing the stairs, I once again heard the meowing coming from deeper into the house. It sounded louder this time and definitely like a cat. Perhaps the owner had left in a hurry, and left his pet cat locked up in a room. Arriving on the second floor, I stood in a small hallway, two doors were on the left side and one on my right. The meowing could be heard coming from the furthest door on the left.
Opening the first door on the left, I looked into what was the bedroom. Heavy curtains were draped across the windows, making it even darker in here than the rest of the house. I sighed in frustration and finally being fed up with the lack of light, and fairly confident the owner was gone, I dropped stealth and walked downstairs to get a candle from the living room.
Having lit the candle, I entered the bedroom and began to inspect it. A big, four-poster bed dominated the room, which was flanked on both sides by a small nightstand. A closet against the wall revealed a collection of average quality of men's clothing.
A closer look at the nightstand revealed something of interest in the drawer. It was a brown, glass bottle, filled almost completely with some kind of liquid.
Chanda
An aphrodisiac of normal strength. When someone consumes one full dose, it will raise that person's arousal, sensitivity, and orgasm strength by 75-100%
Duration: Until the subject has experienced around five orgasms.
Doses: 19/20
"Che. Typical. Guess the owner was pretty worthless if he needed this in the bedroom."
I pick up the potion and placed it in my inventory. Finding nothing else of value inside the bedroom, I leave and go towards the next door. That door turned out to be locked. I tried throwing my weight against it, but my light frame and low strength were not enough to **** open the door. After a few feeble attempts to **** open the door, I give up and proceed to the last door, the one that I could hear the cat sounds from. I try the door handle, and it opens without a problem, revealing the room beyond. As I take in the contents of the room, I gasp at what I saw.
The room was baren, nothing in the form of decoration, but what made me gasp was the single occupant. Laying on a thin mattress was a woman. Her naked body was bound with thick belts, her arms secured against her sides, and her legs tied against each other at the ankles and knees. Her ample breasts were heaving in panted breaths. But this was no human woman. Atop her head, poking out of her hair, where two cute cat ears. And coming from underneath her bottom, was a slender tail. Her skin was covered by a fur the same colour as her hair; a golden honey blonde.
She would have been exceptionally beautiful, but her fur was matted from sweat, and her eyes were looking at me with pure unfulfilled lust. She was also the source of the meowing, the cat-like sounds escaping her mouth instead of words. Finally, what little movement she had, she used to gyrate her hips, probably in an attempt to sate her lustful emotions. I focused on her a bit to see if I could get her information, and sure enough, after a second a status screen appeared in front of me.
Estinne
Level: 4
Race: Feline
Class: Rogue
Gender: Female
Hp: 50
Mp: None magic user.
STR: 1/12
END: 1/10
AGI: 1/15
CHA: 1/12
INT: 1/11
WIS: 1/14
Arousal: Very high. (Artificially raised)
Sensitivity: Very high (Artificially raised)
Last orgasm: five days ago. Male intercourse, ****.
Status effects: Lecherous level 5, final stage. All stats will slowly lower until they reach the minimum of 1. Lasts until the conditions of Lecherous are met.
Mute: Because INT is too low, this character is incapable of intelligent speech.
Basic instincts: Because INT and WIS are too low, this character is only able to act on her species basic instincts.
****: Chanda. This effect is forcefully altering the arousal and sensitivity.
Hungry: Last eaten, five days ago.
Thirsty: Last drank, Five days ago.
****: Has been trying to reach any form of orgasm for several days, unsuccessfully so far.
As I walked closer to get a better look, I saw why she was so focused on moving her hips. A small dildo was shoved inside the woman's pussy and held in place by her closed legs. The frantic movements of her hips were all in an attempt to get some pleasure from the toy, but the way her legs were tied together gave her no room to actually move the thing. The dildo was far too small to give any form of real pleasure by just staying motionless, so the poor woman was cruelly tortured by a means of satisfying herself that she could never reach without help.
If she has been like this for the past five days, then I could certainly understand her desperation. The fact that the lecherous trait and her abysmal stats further hampered her ability to act normally. These days must have been a nightmare come true for her.
As I looked her over, meanwhile admiring her beautiful body, the woman now known as Estinne looked at me with desperation in her eyes. It was clear what she wanted from me.
"Well, let's see if I can get that aphrodisiac to wear off while I go and get some of that food from the kitchen."