Drip-Fed
Trauma Monster 1 – First Clear Bonuses

Seven chests.

An incredible number for any adventurer, struggling or not. An adventurer deemed themselves lucky when a Dungeon dive lead to them receiving more than one by the end. The Inevitable party had a pretty lucky career in that regard, primarily because they went to rarely frequented Dungeons that had a boss waiting at the end.

That they were truly the first ones to clear this one was evident by the layout of their rewards. Six of the chests were spaced out around the walls of the circular chamber. They were of light brown, almost white sandstone, their shape simple and rectangular. Golden decorations gave them that little extra flair.

The seventh chest stood on a pedestal that was in turn located on an island in the middle of the post-Boss Healing Fountain. Island, pedestal and chest were all of a gorgeous wood, deep brown with just a hint of red, carved into flowing shapes and covered in a glistening sheen of lacquer. The chest’s lid was especially ornate, gold and silver glistening in the artificial light of the magical crystals overhead.

“I hope we get valuable things here.” Reysha’s words came alongside her inspecting the sorry state of her equipment. Healing magic restored skin, not clothes and the bodysuit was now marked with a myriad of holes. Individually, the marks of the acid breath could have been mended, but as a whole they made the right side of her chest and most of her sleeve more absence of leather than presence. The oil used to treat the Lanaan leather was pretty useless when there was not enough surface to apply it to.

“That would be of use,” Aclysia agreed. As a healer’s robe, her garb was apt at withstanding most ranged tricks the monsters in Dungeons could pull. Acid was the third of the three most common damage types encountered within the trials of the gods (first being fire and second being ice). Thus, it was less damaged than the bodysuit. Less did not mean at all and the potent dissolvent had left many unseemly holes that, similarly, could not just be patched with some thread.

“Should I be happy that it hit you over me?” Korith checked her own plate. It was a few dents richer, but nothing besides that. As a dense material, it could take a lot of punishment, even from acid. However, it was a lot more expensive to fix such a thick plate.

“No happiness can be found in injuries of loved ones,” Apexus remarked.

After devouring the Serpent of Reason, he felt a little bit better about his lack of answers in the world. At peace? No, that felt impossible. Apexus was uncertain if having the answers would have made him feel better either. The questions of the sapient condition were manifold.

“Any cool Growths?” Reysha wondered, while carefully stripping out of her bodysuit. She clicked her tongue when several of the thinner points tore in the process. ‘Might as well cut that whole sleeve off…’ she considered.

“I have not finished digesting it. It is a dense thing.” Apexus’ eyes roamed over the exposed curves of the redheaded tiger woman. Nothing like the presence of a beautiful woman to distract the mind from existential questions.

Reysha noticed, of course. After kicking off her pants, she put a hand on her hips. The casual gesture emphasized the feminine swing of her curves. “Want to play with your kitty?”

“After we check the chests.”

“Mhm… mhm… but what if we do both?” Suggestively, the redhead poked the inside of her cheek with her tongue. “Ya know, you check the items, I choke on your dick.”

Apexus caved to his baser instincts and lost the pants. The decision was rewarded with a smirking thumbs-up by the nymphomaniac.

‘Should I…?’ Aclysia pondered, following her darling and the horny cat to where Korith was waiting. The blonde kobold had her priorities firmly locked on the chest. ‘Apexus deserves some service.’

 Aclysia lost her clothes quickly, then joined Reysha in squatting in front of the man of the party. Tongues danced over the surface of the erect cock. Wet sounds of smacking lips and horny giggles softly echoed from the venerating service. Reysha tasted him with swift, eager strokes. She rubbed her clit, moaning in her own delight around his cock when she took it into her throat. Aclysia was focused only on the service, whimpering with deep need as she waited for her turn.

Meanwhile, Korith only had eyes for the chest. “So, do we do the big one last or-? She was somehow unaware of the lewdities happening right next to her, until she turned around. When she was faced with the sight of her two fellow haremettes taking turns, all she could think was, ‘They look so good on Master’s dick!’

They were a horny quartet.

“We have one Favour Paper left, correct?” Apexus asked.

“Y-yes!” Korith squeaked. “Yes,” she repeated, a little calmer.

“Then let us open the regular chests first. Then, you can ask Hoard to upgrade the first clear bonus.”

The plan was made and executed. Korith remained distracted by the ongoing service for only a little bit. Once the pulling out of the Loot started, she was entirely focused on that.

The six regular items were:

1.       A coin purse with 100 Gold in it. An impressive amount of money, even if it was no longer as inspiring as some time ago.
2.       One Pot of Growth, an enchanted piece of pottery that allowed a plant of small size to grow as if it was in its optimal conditions no matter where it was placed. Apexus took possession of that one for alchemical purposes.
3.       A high-quality whip, appropriate for their current level, but bereft of enchantments. Reysha gave it a few tries before deciding this wasn’t a weapon for her, so it went on the sell pile.
4.       Three sacks of some kind of powder. Aclysia theorized they were a high-quality building material that could be sold for a high price.
5.       A large vial filled with golden sand that tumbled beautifully when shaken. It was a spell medium, but not one Aclysia could make use of, so it too went on the sell pile.
6.       Lastly, a large and gorgeous gem that could be used by a craftsman or an enchanter. For them, however, it was just a large and gorgeous gem that could be sold.

Reysha gulped down her share of the cum. “Pretty decent haul,” she said and licked her lips. “Do you agree, Aclysia?”

“Mhm?” the metal fairy was in an entirely different headspace, focused entirely on nuzzling up to her darling’s manhood. It took her a moment to surface from that, then a few more to realize what the question was about. “All in all, it is an above average return for a Dungeon dive, doubly so with the atypical shortness of this one.”

“Time to get to the big one!” Korith excitedly leapt across the water. Greed made the motion hasty, taking the grace out of her landing. No grace was required for her to pull out the Favour Paper and start her prayers to Hoard.

The rest of the party walked through the shallow, warm water. When they had made it to Korith, the Favour Paper in her hand disintegrated into golden particles. Motes danced through the air, surrounded the chest and seeped into the wood. For a brief moment, the thing had a golden outline. The next, it changed to red.

Korith shouted with excitement beyond patience and ripped open the lid. She grabbed whatever was inside the darkness and pulled out a gorgeous chest plate.

It was the radiant colour of enchanted gold, gleaming as if the heat of the forge was still fresh in it. Polished to perfection and engraved with winding decorations, its shape was practical despite the ornateness of it all. Rubies of flaming red were symmetrically placed atop the curve of the chest, creating the image of a phoenix with its wings spread.

Korith marvelled at the Mythical loot. “What does it do?” Reysha asked, eager to find out the answer. Items of this power sometimes chose to hide their true capabilities.

Not this one. It informed Korith’s instincts on what its use was. “Beyond being even sturdier than regular enchanted gold, it greatly increases health and stamina recovery of the one wearing it and… if the wearer gets lethally injured, that regeneration becomes even more powerful for a short time, before shutting down for a month.”

“That’s incredibly good,” the redhead said.

“It’s Mythical! It’s the highest quality of Loot and Hoard gave it to me! Best god!” Korith waved the armour around in front of Aclysia. She could only do that for a few seconds. Enchanted gold was heavier than True Silver and this Plate of the Phoenix was thicker than her current armour, which was already above the regular thickness. “More Favour Papers!”

“…I shall consider it,” Aclysia relented.

Korith put the armour down and let out an exhausted breath.

“Can you even fight in that though?” Reysha had to wonder.

“Yeah… armour isn’t nearly as heavy when you actually wear it,” Korith answered. “Plus, the stamina recovery will offset the extra power I need when walking around in it. I hope.”

“You don’t hope, you hop.”

Korith gave the redhead a deadpan stare. “…You know, among all of your puns, that one actually hurt me.”

While those two bantered, Apexus sat down in the Healing Fountain. Under the watchful eyes of Aclysia, he crossed his legs and entered a meditative state. He quieted his mind, enjoying the warmth of the water. The more heat seeped into him from the outside, the less energy he had to burn. Through his skin, he absorbed the water, keeping the daily threat of dehydration at bay.

The passive processes shifted fully to the background, allowing Apexus to focus on the true purpose of his meditation. Fully dissolved, the information to recreate the Serpent of Reason in its constituent parts now existed inside him. It would fade in a few weeks, but for now it was fresh and an organism that small, the humanoid chimera could rebuild inside himself to understand its intricate working.

Fundamentally, the Boss monster was fairly simple. Its skeleton did only deviate from a regular snake in the size and shape of its eye sockets, which allowed for larger and more manoeuvrable oculars. The muscle tissue was also of regular structure. The same went for the internal organs – with one exception.

The magical cortex of the monster was attached to the back of its eyes. It was a peculiarly shaped thing, flatter and more flexible than it was in other creatures. Despite that, it had that unmistakable shape, like a still hard flower bud.

Apexus was interested in the magical cortex. Raw telekinesis was a highly advanced kind of magic. For most mages, it simply was not cost effective or too hard to learn. Even the Serpent of Reason, a creature built for it, had its telekinesis tied specifically to its eyes. The wings it had grown were, by an interesting weave, extensions of its ocular nervous system.

Testing, Apexus first placed the Growth against the back of his own eyes. Brainless as he was, the human skeleton had plenty of space in the back to place that organ in. He put two hands up and focused on the water between them. The calm surface rippled. A singular water drop rose. A disappointing result for the amount of energy he felt flow through him.

‘A problem of concentration,’ Apexus considered and let the water drop fall back into the water. The ripples gently broke against his skin. Sensing them, he got a different idea.

Apexus had not been a creature of sight to begin with. He had grown accustomed to it, certainly, like he had grown to rely on smell and sound. Still, the sense that he relied most on, to this day, was touch, from direct contact to the tremors that went through his feet.

In its current state, the organ could not be attached to his skin. That would require a permanent acquisition, which in turn would be an interesting experiment. How would the integration of such a specialized magical cortex into his Permanent Growths function? Apexus did not know. He had acquired one from a dragon, which was essentially the same as a human’s. As he had just verified, this one let him use a kind of magic he had not been schooled in before, however weak and inefficient that was for a base Growth.

Alternatively, there was the acid glans of serpent. An effective option with a doubtless upside. It was also something that Apexus considered common enough. A telekinetic cortex of this power was something he was unlikely to find anywhere else. If he could integrate it as he hoped he could, then that was an addition to his power set that would surprise his enemies.

‘It is worth the try,’ he decided.

The organ changed in response to his wishes. What had existed to be integrated with the ocular had its connective tissue changed to instead link to the inside of his epidermis. After some shifting around, he decided to make it a part of his spinal column, below the neck joint.

After that, the next step was to try it. His focus changed to his skin and the abundant and easily noticed matter around it: water. Water was the place of Apexus’ early life and water was easily reshaped.

Mana flowed through his magical circuitry. He remembered the hours upon hours he had spent slowly creating the entire system in meditation. Energy had been fed to his magical cortex, then directed to grow the esoteric network through the soul that inhabited his body. That network now formed a new connection and, in that moment, he understood the nature of the organ much better.

The magical cortex of a dragon, and a human for that matter, was a focal point of potential. It was like a hand that could grasp, or relax or spread its fingers. The telekinesis cortex was more like a singular finger, already pointing at a target. Unlike an extra finger to a hand, grafting a specialized kind of magic onto the system truly did have its use.

What others would have learned over many months, Apexus understood by using the organ as intended. His mana flowed through it efficiently, exerting his influence over the world around. His tactile sense let him perceive the nearby water and the motion he put into it. The invisible force of his mind made the still fluid circle around him. He concentrated intensely on it. A pillar of water rose, then immediately collapsed.

‘I need to stabilize the surface tension,’ Apexus thought and tried again. He made it spiral around the stream of water, directing it in a single helix around him. It got no further up than his head and never coiled more than half a metre away from his skin. Even that much was possible only because he sensed the vibrations in the water from where the stream was still connected to the surface. Through air alone, his sensitivity to vibrations would not have been enough.

“That’s pretty impressive.”

Reysha’s voice disrupted his concentration. The spiral collapsed, showering his body with warm water. He managed to stop some segments of it on his skin, but not beyond it.

“A long way to combat practicality,” he said and let the remainders pearl down his skin. In its stead, he moved a hand through the water. The surface bulged unnaturally, the liquid as if magnetized to his skin.

“Still, seems like you get it intuitively,” Korith remarked.

“It is similar to the redirection of force via Flow Manipulation.” Raising his hand, he pulled the water up with him. He made it move up to his palm, then, with great difficulty, separated the orb fully from his skin. It immediately threatened to be undone. Transitioning to his Monk training, he balanced the sphere of water on pads of Ki. He needed both of his hands to do so, but he did manage to achieve it. “I am uncertain if this was the smarter choice. I will experiment more.”

“I have the utmost trust that you will master this, darling,” Aclysia said.

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