The air cooled, and we were faced with the misty spray of water coming from the raft bumping onto the dragon ke’s surface.

  Tense minutes ticked by. Cinzy had one hand cmped on my thigh, and was staring at me in fright.

  We stabilized.

  Trent eventually fell to his side, and I did a quick Diagnosis using Ingenuity. I passed the easy check without spending any Tokens, no problem there. He was technically fine, though he was exhausted and out of mana. This was a cssic case of mana burn, which led to exhaustion. Left alone, he would be back on his feet in a good ten to fifteen minutes. In that time, though, he was out of commission: unable to lift a finger. He could just as easily slide off the raft and… I don’t know, drown in the flying ke monster, or fall to his death by plummeting through the water. Losing a team member in the first week was not one we wanted. Come to think of it, we had hoped not to lose a single team member, period.

  A rummage through my pack ter gave me some oils and some dried herbs, flowers and roots, enough for a quick and dirty Restoration Potion.

  “I got you,” I told him while I worked. “This will be okay.”

  “It… sucks,” he muttered, shivering, teeth ccking.

  Cinzy was holding me by the waistband with one hand while I went through the ingredients at hand. I unfolded and pced down a specially built ft surface, then got a colpsible container stuck to the base. These were like custom-built camping supplies for potion crafting.

  “Do you need help?” Cinzy asked me.

  I passed back a mortar and pestle, along with yarrow root. “Have Drat grind this up. You hold onto me. I don’t want to fall off this raft and find out whether I fall hundreds of feet to my death.”

  “Why do I have to grind it up?” Drat asked.

  “Would you prefer to cup Fletcher’s supple ass?” Cinzy shot back. “No? Okay, grind it like you were in the club.”

  Drat snorted, which was about as close as we would get to ughter, I thought. I rather enjoyed his deadpan delivery and wry humor. Regina was passionate and adorable, Tara was bubbly and a bit air headed, and Cinzy… I wasn’t entirely sure. Pragmatic? Subtle? I hadn’t spent enough time with her to figure out what her deal was.

  Cinzy went back to holding onto my belt from behind, and softly coaching me while I crushed up these leaves and sprinkled those flower petals into the potion. The real key to a Restoration Potion, which immediately gave some stamina and mana, and also boosted recovery for both, was the infusion of some mana while I worked. The materials mattered some, but not as much as the correct infusion of mana.

  So while I worked, I threaded what mana I had into the potion. Rainer had insisted that potioncraft was about consistency and speed. I’d worked at potions for days, slowly putting more and more mana into each one. My first ten or twenty of the things had been disastrous mistakes, some exploding with mana and causing mana poisoning.

  And let me just tell you, you don’t want mana poisoning. I’ve never had it, but apparently it’s like being on LSD, where you hallucinate in the most insane ways imaginable and a bunch that aren’t. Apparently it’s not like being on LSD because it can literally reshape your entire body and the surrounding reality just at random.

  Anyway we had to get Wizards and Sorcerers into one of the bs because it had become a complete disaster. All the materials had turned into other materials. All the surfaces had bubbled or become spiky, and some of them had just changed into lifeforms. The beakers had all gone flying off, with wings, trying to drain people of fluids to fill themselves up.

  It was pretty embarrassing.

  So now I had a slightly better understanding and ability of how to steadily drip my mana down into the potion. Even while Cinzy tapped on my butt and then passed me the mortar filled with the powdered root, I kept the mana infusion steady. And then, finally, root added, the mana continued to flow at a slow and constant trickle.

  And it was done.

  Potions are, of course, best when consumed. Their efficacy increases, because they go directly into your tissues and get absorbed into your bloodstream. But they also work when poured onto a subject’s skin… just less.

  Trent couldn’t move, and I wasn’t in a position to move him. I considered asking Regina to take a moment out of her vital role of manning the tiller, but being hundreds of feet in the air told me we needed her to continue steering the raft. Plus, I hate interrupting people.

  So with one hand full of potion and the other clutching the webbing of rope and nets tied around Muppin, I gently poured just a smidgen of the potion directly onto Trent’s face.

  A few drops was all it took. His eyes shot open and he pulled in a deep gasp of air. He scrambled up onto his butt, bumped into Regina, course corrected, and backed himself up against Muppin’s echidna tail.

  “Drink,” I told him, and he reached a shaky hand up to grab at the aluminum camping cup.

  We continued to rise. Minutes fell away. The path of the dragon creature was impossible to chart, so we were just along for the ride. The fright of falling off the back of the ke god had worn off, and now I found myself astonished at the sights.

  The sun glinting off the water showed us the profusion of fish and creatures below us. We were now seeing flying creatures, and not just birds. Some had the look of bats, some like flying squirrels, others snakes like Tara’s new companion, along with manta rays like Raphael, bats, and then even weirder things.

  Cinzy was, of course, over the moon to see a pegasus, and I soon noticed a couple of flying deer, a flying fox, and a unicorn… dog… that was also a Pegasus.

  “Unidog with wings,” Drat said, not having lost his bsé attitude about everything. “There’s a dog with wings, and a horn. I finished my bingo card.”

  As the hours passed, we stopped counting and settled in to try to enjoy the ride. Larelle and the Guards announced that we weren’t in danger of sliding off so long as someone manned the tiller. When Regina tired of this, Chrysta took over, followed by Ivy, and then Larelle.

  We ate a lovely lunch of picked berries, beef jerky, and some of the rolls that weren’t quite brick hard yet. As a st resort there was a potion I could whip up called a Nourishment Potion, and it did exactly what it sounded like, but with none of the enjoyment of real food. Basically, I could take ingredients that were on the verge of going bad, and process them into ten times the amount of food, if you didn’t mind it tasting like runny oatmeal and coating your tongue in its aftertaste for ages. It beat starvation, but not by much.

  I noted Cinzy was a pretty touchy-feely kind of person, and it was distracting for a while, before it became difficult. She usually put a hand on my shoulder, but from time to time would pat my knee and just leave her hand there. Other times her hand would fall on my thigh, and if I didn’t look at her, she left it there.

  When I did look at her, she apologized. “Sorry, I uh… I need to hold onto somebody. I hope you don’t mind.”

  She knew. She knew I didn’t mind and she was taking advantage of that fact. I also didn’t mind that she was taking advantage like this. She could’ve put the moves on Drat, and he would have reacted the same way. I’m certain of it.

  Regina colpsed on the raft’s deck after her shift at the tiller.

  “You okay?” I asked. At least half the space was taken up by Muppin, so my legs stretched out and left only about a foot of space to the edge. She fell between my outstretched legs, and Cinzy.

  “I’m good,” she said in a shaky voice, pointing a finger at the sky. Tweedle Dee had joined her and was snuggling up to her chest, licking her face and making her ugh. “Fine, fine! I’m fine.”

  “Your Nakamamon is so cuuuuuuute,” Cinzy cooed.

  Regina rolled over and sat up while Tweedle Dee got Cinzy’s hand off my leg and onto the flower fox. In the meantime, Regina stared at me, flicked her gaze over towards Cinzy, then back over to me, before waggling an eyebrow.

  Good lord.

  I’d gone from essentially a virgin to being in a thruple to having my sex friend suggesting I get a harem going.

  ***

  It was clearly the fact that Regina was very bisexual. That had to be it. I couldn’t imagine any other reason she would try to get me in bed with Cinzy after she’d already gotten the both of us in bed with Tara like that.

  These thoughts were drowned out by the ke leveling out and then beginning its descent. I’d gotten another achievement.

  Achievement: Flying High

  Your first time hitching a ride on a god, eh? The meal service isn’t what it could be.

  Reward: +1 css level in your css(es)

  The whole expedition started buzzing about the achievement. A free level in both csses was huge. I had advanced to Healer 11, and Pleasure Seeker 8, which I still was amazed was a real thing. The first gave me 2 more skill points, while the second granted me +1 Likability and +1 skill point.

  Three additional skill points sounded awesome, and I wanted to do something I hadn’t considered strongly until now. So far what I’d wanted to do was be the best Healer I could be, and I had completely neglected to even consider what my skills in Pleasure Seeker might be like. When I’d gotten Healer to begin with, I’d gotten a whole plethora of skill points for an even more ridiculous amount of skills. That hadn’t happened for Pleasure Seeker.

  Pleasure Seeker Qualities List

  Um, what?

  Oh, geez. My face started to heat up as I read through the list.

  Load

  Refractory Period

  Length

  Girth

  Stave Off

  Flexibility

  Tongue

  Pheromones

  Adaptability

  “What the f—”

  “What are you looking at? System stuff?” Cinzy asked.

  I stiffened and tried not to look guilty. “Yup. System stuff.”

  “Yeah there’s a lot in there. Every time I go searching for something it seems like I find several more things. What’s it? Potion specifics? No, wait, you almost swore… I’ll bet it’s the leadership menu for this expedition.”

  Silently very thankful Cinzy couldn’t see my menus or character sheet without me sharing, I flicked the leadership menu open and marveled. This would take my lie down to the white lie category, and hopefully make it harder for me to figure me out.

  She was absolutely correct in assuming that there was always more to the system. There were morale stats (very high except for Trent and Drat), compatibility between members, current role in the group, and approximate readouts of their attributes, skills and special abilities. This one had a little question mark, and when I focused on it, the following message expined.

  Team member statistics may be shared with you. So far none have shared those statistics directly. Approximate stats are derived from direct observations of your team members, knowledge of their activities based on secondhand accounts, and knowledge of special abilities. Special abilities listed are either directly observed or commonly known.

  “You are not wrong,” I said.

  I thanked Cinzy for her help with the Trent situation, and received another of those bewitching smiles from her. I really wanted to stay near her, but a deeper part of me knew instinctively that it was just a ruse. Either I had a resistance to her charm abilities or she wasn’t using them at full power.

  I begged off, telling her I needed to head around the raft and check on everybody’s status health-wise. What I really wanted to do was look over these Pleasure Seeker Qualities and weigh the need to spend skill points on them or not.

  Some of them were quite obvious. Length, Girth, and Load were all size-dependent, meaning more skill points sunk into Qualities would basically increase me physically. Tongue was length-dependent. I could turn myself into a chameleon, or a frog, or that guy from the rock band Kiss. Refractory period went down over time, meaning I could get hard after a shorter period of time. The UI went into great detail about how various factors like age, health or sexual experience impacted Refractory period.

  Flexibility was obvious and direct. Stave Off gave me a skill check when it came to Durability when sex was involved, so I could keep my orgasms at bay. Amazing stuff.

  Then there were Pheromones and Adaptability.

  The Pheromones did just what it sounded like: exuded a barely perceptible sex stank into the air around me. The effect of the pheromones was twofold: one, to encourage women to have sex with me in the first pce, and two, to enhance the pleasure of partners when they did. I could activate it or turn it off at will, and I could push it to double its rating by spending a Likability Token. To me this sounded pretty rapey, and I wasn’t comfortable pushing women in the direction just because they smelled me. On the other hand, I could keep it off until I wanted to use it, then drive Regina or Tara wild.

  For now, I felt like there were far better ways to spend my skill points than something ethically super gray. Healer skills were all very much on the up and up, and none of these made me consider whether or not I was a gross criminal.

  Adaptability was something else entirely. With this Quality, apparently my entire body could (and would) change to fit with my partner’s anatomy. And I’m going to be honest, for entirely too long, I looked at this and went: what? Why would I need to— what could possibly— when would I ever—

  I was crouching next to a prone Chrysta when it clicked. I also looked over at the hulking, enormous, eight foot form of Larelle, with her enormous amounts of hair, no nose, and otherwise perfect physique.

  I could have sex with the Nakamamon.

  That very concept really messed with me for the rest of the flight. People talked about the different types of Nakamamon they had never seen before, that they could add to the catalogues. They also discussed Guanelzia and the experience of riding on a flying ke. None of their friends, family, or other fellow coworkers had ever done this, obviously. They definitely had bragging rights whenever we made it back to the city and the castle. Some of the discussions were logistical: we had x amount of food with us, and could handle x number of days without rationing, and 2x days with strict rationing. They were hesitant to broach the topic of whether or not we could scoop part of the god up and drink it, though An was of the opinion that would could, and probably should. Wizards were supposed to have an understanding of gods and how they fit into the world physiologically, magically, and logistically. An didn’t have much of that, so he was working with the info he recalled from his short on-the-job training.

  I was busy wondering just what in the hell I was doing, considering taking Adaptability and then hitting on the natives.

  “Fletcher?” Trent said quietly, when I was back around the raft and close to him.

  “Hey, Trent, hey, you did great, okay? Exactly how we pnned it. Consider the temporary ban very close to lifted, okay?”

  “It’s not that,” he went on, the severity in his voice and the shifty look on his face filling me with more worry than probably warranted. “I mean thank you. I appreciate it. But there’s another thing.”

  “Ohhhhh kay, hit me.”

  “Who was in charge of keeping the magic resistance pills?” he asked.

  “That would be An,” I said, “though I asked Cinzy to keep an eye on him. She didn’t have much else to do.”

  The magic resistance pills needed to be taken once a week to ensure you didn’t transform into a Nakamamon yourself. Cinzy had those color shifting patches on her skin. Tara’s skin was metallic bronze. Regina’s freckles twinkled. Isabelle and Ivy had their own things, but I just didn’t think about them. Ivy had a red orange aura around her feet that sometimes sent glowing speckles fluttering up, like campfire embers. Sometimes there were streamers of the aura reaching up as far as her knees before drifting away. Isabelle had cotton candy skin, and like Cinzy it slowly shifted. I’d noticed her chin was mostly pink until this morning, when it was blue with pin stripes of pink and white.

  As for me, I was a bit of a strange case. At first, I’d started to turn into a stained gss window, or a monarch butterfly, but after the first pill, I’d gotten green facial hair and eyes. They went mint green at first, the color slowly deepening. Truthfully, I didn’t know enough about the magic suppressant pills to know if this happened to everybody. It had been on the bottom of a long list of things to learn in an awful hurry.

  Trent didn’t seem to have any issue, so far as I could see, until I looked closely. His skin had a fine grain on it, like wood, but it was light and he wasn’t showing much skin.

  Trent lowered his voice even further, darting gnces at the others. “After the boulder incident, a bunch of the pills were crushed. An just stared at them. I thought for sure he would tell you… Cinzia didn’t tell you either?”

  “Um. What?”

  This is Christopher days’ travel from home with a body absorbing magic like a sponge.