Becoming Monsters 2: Ch. 47

"...huh...huh..." Honoka couldn't catch her breath, the metal so cool and soothing against her skin. Rust and dirt be darned, she lay on her back and enjoyed the pleasant little tingle in her back as her wings cramped and made a compelling case why Diane disliked Missionary. "...you gals...do this...all the time?"

"...nah." Dolly also gasped wearily, but less from exertion and more from adrenaline. "Stuff like this is cake walking. Sometimes we pick jobs that are challenging."

"My bad," Quinn said absently, turning over the green glowing TC in her hand and taking the thaumian reader from Dolly's pack, something akin to a voltage tester. "Didn't think the dungeon would move routes on us, mind was workin' slow from allocation. Goin' between Floors isn't supposed ta be this bad here. Should've listened ta Miaka: she has the Taurine dungeon direction sense."

"Didn't know that's what it was." Miaka's voice was deep and velvety, her large beak adding a small echo. Currently, she took half the floor space in the room, her body probably requiring a permit at this point to operate in city limits. "Thought it was intuition. Yet another reason for Allocation Bootcamp."

Honoka rolled her head, discovering a set of stairs leading downward and nodding to herself, fighting the headache and setting all the allocations to zero. Yelps and cries went around as everyone transformed back to their normal selves. The loudest emerged from Honoka when she felt pain again and curled into a ball, coming to grips with some acid burns on her legs. They weren't bad, no worse than a sunburn at this point, but suddenly feeling them was a shock to her system. When Honoka returned to the dungeon floor, she was held by Quinn and Honoka's heart eased within the comfort of that soft, dark fur.

"What's next?" Honoka said, standing yet still holding Quinn, unwilling to stop huggles at the moment.

"Down those stairs and across a blisteringly cold tundra." Dolly unloaded the large rolls of winter clothing from her back, setting them down and cutting the twine. "I've never been down there, but Miaka has."

"Selling Ice Wasp venom to alchemists is like minting gold coins, and the deadly buggers are only found on 272." The kikiyaon pinched a bicep wistfully, missing the extra muscles already. "If scrambling into their hives wasn't a death sentence, more people would be here: need a fully equipped raid group to attack a hive. I've never visited the honey farm, but I've seen the signs on the Floor. We should make it in a half hour, tops." Looking at Honoka holding Quinn, the kikiyaon leered and came over, running a feathered arm lightly against Honoka's very erect cock. "Or should we take a short break?"

Sucking in a sharp breath, Honoka jumped away even as her hips pulled forward, her penile instincts trying to find a willing hole amid all these sexy ladies. The disjoint of her body sprawled her on the floor, moaning from all the small injuries that hadn't had a chance to finish healing from goblin regeneration. The other girls laughed and helped her up, each of them getting some choice words that only brought more laughter.

And no, sexy time could wait, despite what the Beast wanted. The group threw on as many thermals, jackets, blankets and fur rugs as they could each carry or strap onto their body before descending the stairs to the lower Floor. At first, all four women grew very sweaty under the layers, but it wasn't long before they chattered teeth as the temperature dropped below zero and kept falling. When they reached 272, the cold was debilitating with a strong, swirling gust causing the group of wives to pause and peer at the desolation before them.

This would have been a perfect time for a quip, but the expanse of white and rock and ice left everyone too depressed and cold to say anything. And Quinn would have been the only one to hear anything anyway, the wind a loud banshee wailing death and frostbite. What they spied past flurry of whiteness was mostly flat, with jagged bumps occasionally opening into black caverns leading below into icy, unknown depths.

Miaka, holding one of her glowing battle rods, walked over to the left of the stairs and whacked a seemingly random piece of ice. A dozen love taps and the ice broke away, revealing a worn metal sign with a blue striped bee painted on it and an arrow pointing towards a trail of ice further to the left. Without needing to say anything, the hunched birdwoman gathered her coverings closer and trudged down the indicated road, the others following close behind.

It didn't take long in actual time, but it felt like an eternity. Two more signs later, the group was standing in front of what looked like another rocky cave entrance, but this one possessed a massive antenna out front. About five feet (152 cm) into the cave, a bunker-style steel door hidden under a foot (30 cm) of snow and ice. Above the door, the same blue striped bee was partially visible under a dim lamp. It took a few minutes, but after breaking off a sheet of ice to the right of the door with her rod, Miaka pressed a button underneath a speaker.

"[What?]"

The wind was something fierce and no one heard the voice crackling over the speaker. No one, except for Quinn. Moving to the front, the beastkin pushed the button and held it down as indicated next to the speaker, then screamed as loud as she could. "We want to talk 'bout buyin' some honey!"

"[I only deal with licensed distributors and you aren't Benson. Stop bugging me.]"

Quinn turned to Honoka, about to explain when the black woman held up her hand, her eye twitching from allocating fifteen Perception, enough to catch most of the response through the storm. Moving forward, Honoka pushed her numb gloved fingers hard against the button. "Have you sold a lot more honey this month compared to other months!?"

"[...yes.]"

"That's us!" Honoka was thinking fast, attempting to figure how to get inside rather than talk in the cold. "We want to buy a lot more honey! If possible, we can trade in potions or holstaur milk!"

"[You're the source of the milk upstairs? Hmm...]"

The next few minutes brought the wives to the edge of hypothermia as they waited. Honoka knew saying anything more might ruin the deal, stomping her feet to try and feel them again. When it reached the point where the cold forced them to call it quits, a loud buzzer rang and the door cracked open, ice splinters flying everywhere and startling the girls. Feeling a rush of warm air with it, the four gladly ducked inside and sighed in tingling relief. Not that the room roughly the size of a college dorm was actually warmer, only around thirty degrees (-1 C). Compared to outside, it was a sauna. The room was completely bare, one door on the opposite wall of the door outside and then a smaller door to the right side. Each door was the same heavy steel, but the one opposite had a camera and speaker above it.

The most unsettling part, to Honoka's increased Perception and sharing a grim look with Quinn, was that the door to the side had some deep, powerful buzzing coming from the other side. This wasn't an entryway, this was a kill box.

"I don't like being lied to." When the voice spoke over the speaker, the door leading outside closed and bolted shut, unlikely to open with anything short of C4. "I see a lot of interesting Races in here, but none of you look like holstaurs to me."

"Wasn't lying, Banda Longhat's back at home, probably watching a movie with singing and princesses by now." Honoka threw Miaka a sidelong look, glancing at the buzzing door. Miaka leaned over, her eyes widening when she heard it, shaking her head very slightly as she motioned between the two doors. "I guess you have DiFi access down here with that antenna outside. She's the niece of Cholena Longhat, owner of the Boston Dairy."

"[If she opens that door and we can't get out, we are dead. Ice Wasps are no joke.]" Miaka whispered, Honoka barely catching the warning even with her Perception.

"I don't see anything about a Banda Longhat, but you're right about Cholena." Now that there was no wind and a better speaker inside the room, Honoka could tell the voice was female, though it sounded warped in some way, like speaking with something stuck in her mouth. "Just means you came prepared. Only it doesn't fit. By all accounts on the message boards, the amount of milk sold in Harvardtown amounts to a small dairy, not one heifer."

Honoka pursed her lips. How paranoid can one girl be? The futa was cold, horny and now worried she was about to die by giant bee stings. Reason never works with crazy, only more crazy would work. Which is when she got a crazy idea.

"You're correct, there's a secret to it," Honoka announced, sighing dramatically and pushing the hood of her coat up. "Banda is a member of our guild, but she's not the only one getting milked. Dolly, could you hand me one of the holstaur potions?"

Dolly, bless her heart, didn't understand immediately and almost flubbed the touchdown in the ninth inning. Then when she figured it out, the cheetaur's face smiled and practically Kronked it up by saying Oh riiight, the potion, the potion for Honoka, the potion chosen specially to allocate Honoka, Honoka's potion.

"This potion?" Dolly asked, holding out the vial of water Honoka saw earlier at FDR.

"Yes," Honoka replied too eagerly, wondering why in the world she was stuck in a universe where a lie was about to make more sense than the truth. Shucking out of clothing and weapons, Dolly and Miaka took it upon themselves to hold up a large blanket to protect Honoka's modesty. Honoka didn't really care, naked was becoming her zen, but she wouldn't begrudge her wives for doing it either. Grinning, Honoka held up the vial of water dramatically and gulped it down. She immediately bent over a little, looking like she was gagging but in reality suffering the effects of a massive Status migraine as she dialed up Banda and went all in. She also made sure to add another six Strength from Padmava and six more from Diane, thinking if things went sideways she would just toro the door open like a mad bull.

Boobs and muscles really were Honoka's top fetishes. Which one was more loved than the other, Honoka had no idea, they were tied for first place. Second place was a solid giantess growth with strange and interesting Racial monster girls a close third. Those four all combined in Banda and Honoka actually thanked God every night before going to bed to live a life surrounded by women who all exemplified those traits while possessing a Class allowing her to experience it anew each time she allocated. There was no question among the wives that Honoka loved each one of them as a person, thinking them all beautiful and doing her utmost to treat each wife with respect, love, tender care and equal passion.

However, they also weren't blind or stupid. They knew which wife ticked all of Honoka's boxes. The fact Banda was such an adorable sweetheart the only reason jealous bullying hadn't exploded into the family. That, and the knowledge that each wife was only a few Harmony points away from being the next big girl on campus.

The wives didn't see Banda's physical assets as unreachable ideals. They saw them as hurdles to jump over.

"This never gets old," Honoka whispered, her vascular system churning into overdrive and blowing up all over her body, the burgeoning and bulging of her mass swolling far beyond human capacity and building into the framework of muscled perfection Honoka knew as a holstaur woman. Shoulders grew out proportionally wider, those clavicles and scapulas far thicker to hold up meaty deltoids and trapezius muscles. Pectorals fought each other to see which would grow more over a ribcage that could now fit a heart and lungs capable of powering such a massive engine of throbbing destruction. It was enough to cream Honoka right there if the Beast hadn't shrunk then disappeared already.

While Honoka reveled in breasts filling with hot, frothing milk, she noticed a few other things from the last time she spent any real time as a holstaur. First, her muscles bulged far larger than normal, making it difficult to move. This was expected, and she should have grabbed more Agility to counter it, but her headache said this was going to be her limit for at least an hour. And she would have played with her new and large tits more - to heck with a voyeuristic watching beekeeper - but said tits kept on growing and growing. They passed what Honoka knew was a normal R to T sized range and only stopped on the other side of Z. Reaching up, they felt abnormally heavy, even with all the Strength pumping in her arms. Confused, Honoka realized what the problem was as she felt a pressure building up behind her swollen teats, each one aching with a painful need to express milk.

Its like when I allocate as a succubus, Honoka realized, poking the hamster in her brain to run the wheel. Every allocation is stored in some kind of metaphorical closet when I'm not using them. When I'm using a particular Race or even Racial Feature, it accumulates or expends the particular energy of that Race during allocation. For instance, when I'm a succubus, I require sexual energy to fill my hunger. When I'm a holstaur, my tits fill with milk. Guess all the time has added up.

Holding up her arms in a devastating flex of both her guns, Honoka let the other wives wrap the blanket around her like a towel and then put on a few more coverings to keep warm. "Satisfied? If you want a free taste test, you'll have to hurry and let us in before the potion wears off."

"信じられない."

Honoka blinked, wondering what in the wide wide world of sports was a Japanese phrase of disbelief coming from out of that speaker above the door. Before she could say anything, Honoka tensed as another buzzer sounded off and the door in front of them opened on silent hinges. Puffing out a nervous breath, Honoka shrugged and led the way further into the bunker, the other wives following, everyone relieved they wouldn't be dealing with monster wasps for the moment.