Drip-Fed Pt. 04

The legs fell to the floor as the connecting segment was melted away. Reysha stretched out one of her hands and one of the dismembered limbs fell into it. She grabbed the upper edge of it with both hands and then used her teeth to pry open the biological armour, revealing the soft flesh underneath.

Reysha ripped into the sweet spider meat with immediacy. Compared to the rats earlier it was a delicacy, like lobster was to pigs. The better question was why she was hungry again. She had eaten not too long ago and a lot as well. Still, she shoved more and more of the creature's meat into her mouth as if she had been famished for days, eating all eight of the fallen legs with glee. By the end, her hands were sticky with the spider's hemolymph, the lifeblood of arthropods. She licked her hands until they were clean again, same for her lips.

Neither Apexus nor Aclysia had anything about the display they found odd, one of them was a glutton itself and the other a being of metallic structure that knew not how much was normal for a humanoid to eat. She just possessed general knowledge of the world at large and detailed about the affairs of the divine, for everything else she had to learn just as much as the next physical being.

They continued on their way through the structure. In the labyrinthian outline of the Clearwater Dungeon, it was hard to feel like they made any progress towards their goal. Everything continued to look the same no matter where they went. Simple stone walls, smooth enough to be of intelligent design, stretched around them in the shape of arcs and glowing crystals in the ceiling gave light and warmth.

Only the pheromone trail Apexus left behind was a steady mark of their progress. The fact that they just had to walk back their cold trail to get a guaranteed, if unnecessarily winding, path back to the entrance area, was a perfect security net.

As to the question of where they were going to, Apexus was under the impression that it had devoured just about everything that this dungeon had in variety. Adding to that that the slime had already found something it wanted to permanently acquire, being the Spirit Fox's ears, and Apexus had decided that they were now heading for the boss. It had informed the other two of that decision by scribbling that word into the condensation covered walls of the health fountain chamber.

The tiger girl agreed because she was feeling her luck turning and really wanted to take revenge on the dungeon. While the structure itself was nothing she could do anything about, the boss was about as close a physical manifestation of it as she could reach. Aclysia on the other hand was halfway convinced that the next part of herself was located there. It made more sense than hiding it at some random point in the rather large structure.

Reysha noticed movement in the edge of her periphery when they went past a crossroad and immediately jumped on it. The large rat was still aiming its own pounce, so the swiftness of the tiger girl's movement completely took it by surprise. Its life was snuffed out just as quickly, when Reysha rammed her fangs in the exposed neck.

'I never thought these would be that useful,' Reysha thought as she picked up the corpse. Having grown up in a civilized leaf, biting things to death was a thing she only had to learn recently. Similarly, her claws had only ever seen playful usage before she lost her daggers. She looked at the rat, she could have gone for a post-meal snack, but she didn't want to be stained in blood again. "You want?" she asked Apexus, who nodded in its slimy way (more of a bob really) and consequently caught the rat in its spider fangs after the corpse was thrown its way.

The slime gobbled the rat up in a few minutes. It had eaten so many of these things, its body must have figured out how to dissolve them quicker. Either that or the continuous increase in size also helped the slime in acidity. It surely felt stronger all around, compared to when it had entered the dungeon. Its diameter had also increased noticeably, although that growth rate was slowly declining. Apexus wasn't bothered by this, it didn't want to end up like a Forester Dragon, too big to ever move about unnoticed.

Most encounters with enemies were laughable now that they had two proper fighters in the party. Being able to keep each other's backs free from ambushes was incredibly valuable, as was the intimidation factor of being in their own group. There were still some cases were sneaking past was the better idea. One example was a room filled to the brim with spiders, who didn't even try to hide, situated around a pedestal. On top of that stood a large chest of a brilliant red with rims of cold, a trapeze shaped lid inviting people to explore what lay below.

However, Apexus liked its life more than tools made for human hands, thusly useless for itself. Reysha grumbled a bit after they had rushed past that room and went elsewhere, but as she had lost her bag she wouldn't have been able to carry whatever they found anyway. Chests, like monsters, just appeared within dungeons and missing one was considered somewhat of a shameful display in the adventurer community.

"I have been meaning to ask," Aclysia struck up a new conversation as they had yet another food pause. "What is your level?"

With two gluttons, these breaks were pretty frequent. Apexus spent this one trying to figure out how to use the Spirit Fox tail. It was odd to have a Growth that was hovering on its mass, rather than being directly attached. Much like with the eagle's lightning magic before, the slime was unable to figure out how to use the thing to make spellcraft happen. Didn't help that it had murdered this specimen before even seeing what it was supposed to do. Soon after, it got rid of the Growth again, sensing that it was just too supernaturally illiterate to get this working.

Reysha cupped her breasts, "These you can C for yourself," she answered. She laughed out loud when Aclysia made a confounded face. "Just messing around. Last estimate was about four," the tiger girl answered earnestly. "But that was before I got stuck here, so I would say I made it to five now."

"That sounds accurate," Aclysia stated, having thought it to be around that herself. As Apexus looked at both of them questioningly after that exchange, the metal fairy went on to explaining what she had just asked about.

There were two ways adventurers got stronger over time. One was raw experience, continued engagements with life-threatening situations honed one's skills. The other was a process referred to as levelling. Each monster killed, each dungeon beaten, each mystery solved, whatever an adventurer did, they would be exposed to magic and some of it would settle in their body over time. As such, adventurers slowly rose above the natural limitations of mere mortals.

There were tests to accurately gauge a person's level and spread of abilities among stats, but those cost the actual time and effort of a skilled Analyst and were thus reserved for the ones who went up further the ladder than Reysha had yet. A Scribe could provide a basic level esitmation, but none of those were around either. "Lastly, it should be noted that those who get carried through challenges far above their current level usually get the bursting sickness," Aclysia finished, her simple explanation having turned into an elaborate lecture at some point. "In that their mana vessels expand too fast by absorbing the powerful magic and are left permanently damaged."

"We don't get shortcuts," Reysha grinned, "adventuring is a business of talent and dedication... and luck." She added the last part with an unsteady laugh, aware of the twists of fate that allowed this conversation to happen.

They continued to fight and eat their way through the dungeon.

Their dungeon crawling continued for a long, long time. Easily several times as long as Apexus had been in there already, making it anywhere between one and three weeks. "Scout, I want one, now," Reysha complained on one occasion.

They were weak fighters, at best giving mediocre ranged support, but they had an arrangement of skills that made them incredibly important for every party that wanted to explore. One of which was the ability to tell the time without any need of outside assistance. With varying degrees of accuracy, depending on the level of the Scout, but way more accurate than Apexus' guessing.

All of which was yet another thing that the slime needed to have explained to it. It seriously felt like it knew nothing of the world in moments like this. Really begged the question as to why it had learned so much about math instead when it hadn't needed to solve a single equation since leaving its place of schooling. One would think what was realistically applicable would take the most amount of time in any education.

"A Scout would be a welcome luxury," Aclysia agreed. "However, we cannot go into the city to hire one as it stands."

"Yeah, sucks, doesn't it," the young tigress scratched the back of her head, her breasts stretching nicely as they followed the motion. Her upper armour had unravelled completely during their continued stay, leaving her only with her boots and leather pants that had been reduced from ripped all over to a jagged piece covering only her ass and crotch. While that was a feast for everyone's eyes, it was not particularly safe. Her ears turned slightly and her voice dropped to a whisper. "To the right, F-R-R."

Apexus had noticed the approaching enemies itself; the quickly skittering up the walls to prepare an ambush. Wordlessly, Reysha hid herself by pressing against the corner and waited. Squeaking and growling, a Spirit Fox and two rats came hurrying down the hallway, guided by their dungeon dweller's instinct in the pursuit of adventurers.

Serving as bait, Aclysia stood in plain sight on the damp floor. The tiny fairy seemed like a dwarf standing up to a rat the size of a horse. Not that it mattered, as she flew upwards the moment the enemies tried to trample her down. Somewhat confused, the trio of monsters stopped and turned around.

That was when the trap sprung.

Apexus dropped down, burying a rat entirely underneath its mass at the same moment as Reysha pounced on the other one. She had developed a perfect technique to kill them at this point. One hand on the snout, another at the lower spine, a knee right of the neck and the rat was completely immobilized under her body weight, allowing her to sink her sharp teeth easily into the neck.

The Spirit Fox was quick to react, summoning a little, blue flame that hovered over its bushy tail. Before it could fire the projectile, Aclysia was suddenly in front of its face and used a weak light spell. While it dealt absolutely no damage, at that range it succeeded at blinding the canine creature, giving both Apexus and Reysha the time to recover from their successful takedowns.

Retreating backwards and shaking its head in attempt to get at least a blurry vision of what was going on, the Spirit Fox activated its spell. The flame turned into a projectile and, through either luck or instinct, it actually flew for Reysha's head. With an insane giggle, the tiger girl executed a forwards stepping pirouette that had her narrowly go around the projectile. Using the momentum, her boot crashed into the Spirit Fox's head, who was now both blinded and staggered.

Apexus was in the air at that point, a combination of the spider legs and the wings allowed it to jump quite well and thus it landed on the back of the Spirit Fox. The stolen fangs ripped through the fox's fur and into its spine. In a full body grip, Apexus began to envelop the fox's head and soon thereafter it was dead.

Rather than absorbing it completely at that point, the slime retreated and left the spoils to Reysha. This was only the second Spirit Fox they had encountered and it had gone flawlessly. "For me?" Reysha mused, it wasn't a genuine question as she was already in the motion of taking her sweet revenge for the hunt she had to endure at the paws of the first fox.

The trio had gained a good understanding of each other over the time they had spent together and developed a group dynamic that worked well. Reysha was the best at noticing threats at a long range in the group, so she would do the warnings. The de-facto leader of the group, Apexus, had the greatest situational awareness in a combat situation thanks to the tremor sense only it possessed. Both of them preferred to ambush their prey, although Reysha was willing to play dirty even if the situation didn't require it whereas Apexus liked an honest fight of dominance when the odds were even.

Lastly, Aclysia wasn't the greatest in actual combat, but her small size and versatile, if weak, arrangement of spells allowed her to function as great bait. Without any large communication, the party thus found a nice way to work with each other's strengths and amplify them.

"I really fucking hate being naked all the time," Reysha growled between two bites of her meal. As time continued, she only seemed to grow more feral in her approach to food. Currently, she was pinning the carcass down and ripping strips of flesh off with her teeth alone. Apexus could read from her tail's slightly curved tip that, despite her aggressive words, she was in a good mood.

Aclysia rested on her digesting awakener. "You say that, yet whenever we find a healing fountain, you strip and masturbate immediately," the metal fairy had lost all shame regarding this by now. It was an occurrence whenever Reysha had the time for it, at least every other day. Sometimes they would even backtrack to take a bath and just relax for a few hours.

"I can't help it, I am so horny," the tiger girl answered cutting away fur with her claws. "I don't even know why... I just need it," it wasn't quite clear whether she was still referring to touching herself or the meat she was devouring with savagery.

Even Apexus was slowly catching onto the fact that something was not quite right with the way Reysha was behaving. He had seen five humanoids, if counting Aclysia, since being born and the tiger girl had a bunch of irregular behaviours.

Laughing randomly, overly aggressive strategies and her immensely open sexuality were all things the slime could have booked under 'individual weirdness'. However, she was eating several times more than the slime had ever seen Gizmo need and this only increased as time went on, together with the primality which she employed in her feeding frenzies. Also, and this might just have been his imagination, but her sclera seemed to slowly gain a grey tinge.

It was probably for the best if they got this affair done with as soon as possible.

Luckily, they finally found the boss room not too long thereafter. It was set-up in a very beginner friendly way; a stone gate clearly marked with a rim of dull gold, located at the other side of a health fountain. It was literally the only door in the entire dungeon. Not only did this setup allow adventurers to decide when they wanted to start the fight, they could also heal beforehand. There even were two chests in the room to give those who didn't feel like they were ready to tackle the boss with their current party somewhat of a reward.

Chests Reysha ignored in favour of doing as Aclysia had analysed. Her remaining clothes hit the floor and the second she was clean her fingers were rubbing her smooth pussy. "Ah, fuahck," she purred with a stretched-out tongue. It felt like her whole body was on fire, no amount of raw fucking she had gotten before these recent times had felt this good. The only things that successfully distracted her from this lust was fighting and in these safe rooms that pretence vanished.

Normally, one would have been worried about such changes to their body. Reysha just didn't care. Nothing about this felt harmful, on the contrary, since the idea that normality existed had dropped from her mental landscape, she felt more alive than ever. Her body was on fire, yes, but what she ate tasted better than the boring prepared food that she remembered and even her fingers gave her more satisfaction than any dick ever had. As far as she was concerned, she was changing for the better.

Apexus had wondered if maybe it was the source of the lust, but the pheromones had nowhere near that effect on Aclysia. All they were supposed to do, in the first place, were smell good to them. It didn't have any brainwashing attached to them or anything. The aphrodisiac it had used accidentally also had long dispersed. Something else was going on.

"Almost... there," Reysha panted, her body causing ripples in the shallow water, head resting on the circular platform around the pool, as she writhed in sudden movements. Her moans were cries of desire in those halls that were only graced by the sound of running streams otherwise. Her shoulder was jittering quickly as she rubbed her clit with immense speed. The sounds that left her mouth became higher and higher in pitch.

In a moment of highest perversion, moments before the climax, she pressed her second hand against her asshole and pushed one finger inside. She had done so before, but never had it created such a sudden outburst of raw pleasure. Her hips broke through the surface as her body arched up. Both Aclysia and Apexus forgot their worries at the sight of the striped girl's orgasm, squirting a clear liquid into the streaming fountain.

She was silent, despite her wide-open mouth, her whole body tense. Then it suddenly relaxed and plunged back under the surface. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, I needed that, but want mooooreeee," Reysha stated, a feverish glance going out towards Apexus. Her mouth opened and snapped close again, wanting to beg for the slime to actually fuck her this time. However, the metal fairy right next to it, she knew the slime wouldn't disrespect her in that manner. Even if Apexus would have done that, she couldn't have done it over the guilt she felt.

"Another time, another time, then I will cum so hard," Reysha mumbled to herself, suppressing the urge to continue masturbating and climbing out of the water. Following her with a worried gaze was Aclysia. The only thing that kept the white-haired creation from commenting was the fact that they would have plenty of time to talk once they were out of there.

Instead Aclysia decided to concentrate on the chests. "Shall we see if something of worth is inside?" she asked the tiger girl, who was grinning wild and already had her hands on the lid of the first one.

"Fucking yeah!" she screamed and shoved open the lid with way more force than was necessary. A pole stretched towards her and Reysha grabbed it with a raised eyebrow. Then she pulled out a spear. The chest wasn't anywhere deep or wide enough to contain that weapon, but before anybody could question how that worked, the lid forcefully snapped on its own and locked itself audibly.

The spear was a simple design, a polished pole of light brown wood ending in a diamond shaped iron tip. A single rune was carved into that sharpened piece of metal. Reysha turned the weapon downwards and stabbed the stone floor between her feet. The reverberating sound of the strike was accompanied by a fizzle of electricity. It was far from impressive, but it was an enchanted weapon. For a beginner adventure, such a weapon was a giant upgrade from the basic weaponry they usually were equipped with.

"Too bad I suck with spears though... the weapons, I mean, the others I like to suck at," Reysha made a joke that flew over both of her companions' heads. Aclysia was too innocent and Apexus wasn't familiar with the common metaphor. The tiger girl still had a laugh on her lonesome. "Guess it's better to have than no weapon."

The second chest contained something more useful, even if not immediately. It was an adventurer's bag made from black velvet. "This is bigger than my old one," Reysha said and even squealed ecstatically when she found a gold coin inside. Her entire debt was five gold coins and that was enough money to finance an adventurer's starting equipment plus logistics for about two weeks. In other words, this was a fortune.