Of course

It doesn’t take long for the two of you to once again arrive in front of the barrier. The dialogue that counts down the time remaining for the upgrade remains. You look to Sylvana expectantly and she steps towards the window. She looks to you and you nod, urging her on.

Her hands rise, resting on her breasts. Somehow they look fuller in the short time that it took you to travel to the edge of the grove. Her fingers find her nipples and she bites her lower lip as she pulls and squeezes the engorged nubs. You’re not sure what you expected, but this wasn’t it. Still, you watch as she milks her self. At first nothing emerges and you wonder if she’s putting you on. Just as the thought crosses your mind she moans. Streams of glowing, amber fluid begin to leak from her teats. Rather than just flowing down her upthrust breasts, as you might expect, each drop of the viscous fluid rises up and draws together into a shimmering golden orb.

It takes several minutes for Sylvana to wring every drop from her leaking tits; and by the time she’s finished her knees are trembling. You move behind her to support her and she looks back at you, gratitude visibly present in her tired features. When she finishes the window in front of you changes, detecting the presence of the newly formed essence. It asks if you would like to use it and you hesitate not at all before confirming the use.

The shimmering, amorphous orb of essence glows brightly after the window closes and then disappears. The barrier in front of you takes on a golden sheen for a moment and the timer reduces by ten hours.

So, a single essence is not enough to complete an upgrade. Good information to have since you imagine that further improvements may take even longer. You’ll have to find other sources you think to yourself, noting how exhausted Sylvana seems from having produced just the one. You don’t think she’d be able to do this continuously, and you’re not sure if you can stockpile the essence that she produces. You weren’t asked if you’d like to add it to your resources, but perhaps that was because you had an immediate use for it? Something to think about anyways.

You reach up and pat the vines atop the nymph’s head. “Thank you, Sylvana.” She looks back in surprise. This was the first time you’d shown any sort of gratitude towards her, and the first time you’d even said her name.

“You’re… welcome.” She slowly returned, leaning back into you even more and causing you to nearly stagger. You really needed to invest in some more strength when you had the chance.

“Okay, okay, up now.” You laugh softly, and move to her side, trying not to make it too obvious she’d almost knocked you over. Her arm over your shoulder you provide some support while the two of you head back to the lodge. “You did well today, little rabbit. Get some rest now.” You bring her to your cot and lie her down. She was done for the night, but you couldn’t rest easy just yet.

Sylvana quickly curled up on the cot and within seconds she was asleep. Or in deep meditation. Whatever it was the nature spirits did to regain their stamina. You weren’t completely sure.

You head outside and leave her be for now. Looking around the clearing you think that there are at least a few other things that you could probably do before needing to call it a night. Turning back towards the lodge you tap on the ground and bring up the building options. Scanning through the list you find several options for production and think that would be the best place to start. You place a blueprint for a simple workbench and begin pounding away at the resources that appear, determined that you’ll get at least this done.

A short time later you have a simple wooden bench in front of you. There’s not much to it, but apparently it’s a prerequisite for many more advanced productions. Thinking that it hadn’t taken very long you see what options opened up for you. A variety of simple tools are available for manufacture as well as some basic weapons. Tools would speed along a lot of things, so you quickly craft one of each, laying each one to the side as it appears. It takes nearly all of the meager bit of stone you’d collected while out earlier in the day, leaving you with mostly wood and plant fiber: two things of which there is no shortage of in the forest.

Feeling like you’ve finally done enough for today you head inside and crowd onto the tiny cot alongside Sylvana. The sweet scent of her lulls you quickly into sleep.