[Vol. 10 pt. 11]

While Ryouta took care of his ferrets and Saya worked on seducing his girlfriends so that she, too, could officially be in their relationship and count as one of the previously mentioned girlfriends, another member of the relationship was busy elsewhere—somewhere secret. Well, not too secret. There were other organizations within the world of Fantasy Tales Online that were really secret. Organizations that the vast majority of players, even the most important and influential of them, had no idea about.

But the Hermetic Scholars were not such an organization. If anything, they loved to be known by players all around the world. They took great joy in helping others, learning as much as possible, and sharing news of their discoveries.

Well, some discoveries.

There were plenty of discovers that the Hermetic Scholars came across that they refused to share with any players outside of their organization because they were sure discoveries would result in chaos across the world. Material combinations that would basically result in chemical warfare, advanced weaponry that more or less emulated modern weapons, powerful magics on par with the spells that Azalabulia threw around as if they were nothing—there were many secrets that the many players of FTO didn’t need to know about.

And one of those secrets was the headquarters of the Hermetic Scholars where all of these other secrets were kept.

And one member of Ryouta’s relationship just so happened to be a member of the Hermetic Scholars and knew exactly where said headquarters was.

In the middle of a flooded valley that branched into dozens of different directions was a large pillar of stone sticking up from the water with looked like the head of an eagle etched into the front half of the pillar. Where the pillar met the surface of the valley’s water was a small dock with a simple rowboat tied to it, and the dock was connected to a pair of old, steep, stone stairs that led up along the side of the pillar to the side of the eagle’s head.

The stairs seemingly led to nothing, though, as there was only smooth stone at the top of them.

But that was only until Eva, standing at the top of the stairs, said, “The sphinx of black quartz judges the brown fox’s vow.”

No matter how many times Eva said that secret passphrase to open up the solid wall, revealing a descending staircase into the pillar, she would always get excited.

Secret codes and passages were always fun.

And this time, Eva carried a couple bags within her arms that were full of various plants, flowers, and random parts from the local monsters.

While Eva descended the staircase, a familiar man ascended them. A man who wore a simple, hooded robe and who had his arms replaced with what looked like three tentacles each. “Oh, Eva, just get in?” the man asked.

“Yep,” Eva answered. “What’s up, Alano?”

“Not much. Just going to go grab some materials.”

“Need anything in specific?”

“I’m not sure. I am kind of just thinking about gathering as many random things I can find just to get some inspiration.”

“Ah, alright. How’s the whole turning your body into a tentacle monster thing going?”

Alano raised his tentacle arms up and wiggled them around. “This is all I have still. Need to figure out a way to get myself gills. I think, once I’m able to breathe underwater, I should be fine with transforming the rest of my body.”

“Then you’re going to go lurk in the waters outside of popular beaches to terrorize girls in swimming suits?”

“That’s the dream.”

A rumbling explosion could be heard from below.

Neither of them reacted to it.

“Well, good luck with that,” Eva said. “My boyfriend might want to hit you up if you ever find out an easy way to turn back and forth from being a tentacle monster.”

“Ah, a fellow man of culture,” Alano said. “And you just added more evidence to the new theory that it’s impossible for you to go a day without bringing him up somehow.”

“That’s… kind of embarrassing. I’m not being annoying, am I?”

“You’re fine. We’re all just—”

Another explosion.

“—surprised you came back with not only a boyfriend, but a boyfriend and… how many girlfriends again?”

“Four. Probably five soon. Maybe six.”

“I feel sorry for your boyfriend.”

“Don’t worry about him. My one girlfriend, Serra, basically splits the boyfriend role with him so that he’s not stuck managing all of us on his own. Plus we all usually go and do our own things.”

“Must be nice. I wonder if I’ll get my own group of girlfriends if I can turn into a tentacle monster.”

“If you meet the right kind of girls you will. Anyways, Manoel is waiting for these, so I’m going to get them to him. Good luck with the material hunting!”

“Thanks, Eva. Oh, one last thing. How much longer do you think you’ll be back for?”

“Ah… probably another week or two at most? I do miss everybody, so I won’t be able to resist going back for much longer.”

“Any luck with getting permission from the big guy for setting up a branch there yet?”

“Nope. He’s been too focused on his latest experiment. You know how he gets. Once he’s investigating something or focused on an experiment, his life revolves around it until he’s accomplished whatever he’s trying to do.”

“True. Well, I’ll leave you to Manoel. Tell him for me again that the tacos last night were incredible. Seriously, I even dreamed about them.”

“Hah. Alright. Will do.”

With that, the two nodded at one another and continued along their ways.

It took some time descending the stairs. Most people didn’t expect the stairs to last so long when they first entered the headquarters, but it had to descend through the pillar into the ground below the valley’s flooded floor. It was only then that Eva reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the headquarters properly. Well, according to those in charge, it wasn’t just a headquarters. It was “The Monastery.” Despite not actually being a religious organization at all, they thought that it would make for a cool name, and so figured why not?

And the first thing that Eva saw within the carved-out architecture of The Monastery was smoke, black residue painting the pillars, and somebody with the upper half of their body blown away, leaving only their legs on the ground in a rather bloody mess.

“Guess her bomb experiment is going well,” Eva said.

“Well—well enough,” another of the nearby scholars said. This new scholar likely looked like the exact opposite of what somebody would expect when it came to players dedicated themselves to the “nerdy” pursuits within the game. She was tall, blonde, buxom, and had on bikini armor that looked like it was taken to the extreme levels of skimpy. Even actual game developers didn’t make bikini armor that revealing, yet there she was.

“I see you put on your bikini armor today, Grace. How’s it doing?”

The scantily clad woman, Grace, reached up to grab her own breasts and gave them a little bounce. That caused the fabric on the front of her bikini to pull away and reveal two, glowing circles that were probably located directly over her nipples. The circles were about the same size and shape, too. “I finally got the runes to work. There’s another shield rune down here.” She ran her hand over her crotch. “These three runes produce shields that stack over each other, so I can look as slutty as I can make myself while still having all the protection of wearing the heaviest armor there is! Now, if only I could copy the results in reality. Earn all the respect of being a properly dressed businesswoman while going to work in my underwear. Ah, if only, if only. Anyways, want me to make you a set?”

“I—I think I’ll pass.” Eva said that, but she couldn’t resist imagining Cassiel wearing such armor. Cassiel was even bustier than Grace, too, so it would really be quite the sight.

“I bet I know how I can convince you.”

“I’m afraid to ask… but how?”

“Heh. I know you, Evabear. All I have to do is arouse that curious mind of yours. For example! Not only do I have runes for shield barriers, but I can make runes for protection from extreme temperatures, too. That means, in theory, if I were to replace the boob runes with extreme heat protection runes while keeping a shield rune on the crotch, I could make you a bikini that generates a skintight shield around you that is immune to heat. For example… immune to lava. Then you can go swimming in lava without burning to death! I mean, swimming in lava wouldn’t exactly work that well, but you could at least wade your way through it. Maybe just sit in a shallow pool of it to relax.”

“If… if you do that… could you at least make it look like a normal bikini?”

“Come on! You gave yourself a nice body with your avatar. It’s fine to show it off some more! Come on, it’ll be fun. And I’ll be the only one who sees. Do it, Eva. Come on. Do it. Embrace the bikini armor. Embrace the slutty MMO armor that is a staple of the genre! You’re not a true MMO gamer until you make yourself look as slutty as possible! Speaking of which, I should go back to working on my growth potion. I want bigger tits. My ass could go for a bigger size, too. And my thighs. Oh! Did I mention that Ariel finally got her dick growth potion working? So we could totally grow dicks now if we want. I’m tempted to do it, but then you go from slutty to just sexual, you know? It’s one thing to have big tits that are barely covered, but it’s an entirely different thing to have a huge dick flopping around that’s barely covered.”

“I think that’s a double standard… but I have to agree with you even so.”

“But, imagine. If I get my growth potion working, it could give us huge boobs and huge dicks. We could just hold them up between our tits all day. It’s like a cock holster and 24/7 titfuck at the same time!”

Between how horny Grace was acting and the fact that she started to drool, Eva knew that it was time to back away. “Have fun with that. I’m gonna—”

“Oh, by the way. Did Alano tell you about his tentacle bath?”

“I know he was working on it.”

“He finished it earlier! Let me tell you, it’s amazing. It’s like getting to take a bath in a tub full of cum that has tentacles inside of it that will do whatever you want to you if you order them to. It’s like the ultimate sex toy. You just have to get past the fact that the tub itself looks like a giant, fleshy organ full of cum.”

“I… I think I’ll have to pass.”

“Come on! It’s not like you’d be cheating on anybody. It’s basically the same as using a vibrator. The tub and tentacles aren’t actually alive or anything.”

“Grace, you’re drooling all over your chest.”

Grace looked down and noticed that, surely enough, her breasts were catching all of her drool. “Oh. Whoops. Guess I’m getting too excited. Maybe I should go use the bath again.”

Eva patted Grace on the shoulder and said, “You go do that.”

“I will! And don’t forget to let me know what you want your bikini to look like!”

“I’ll send you a message over Fiscord with the kind of design I like, alright?”

Grace stuck her tongue out, closed one eye, and gave Eva a thumbs-up before happily rushing off to where Alano’s tentacle tub was.

Now, Eva didn’t mind the number of sexual players there were in the Hermetic Scholars. One, nerds always ended up being the biggest freaks. Liking science, playing tabletop RPGs, and being into a bunch of freaky fetishes all had an extreme amount of overlap that most people wouldn’t normally think about. That being said, all the sexual stuff wasn’t exactly something she had much interest in, and she did wish that there were some more members who just wanted good old, family fun, potentially deadly, science.

Fortunately, that was where her best friend in the Hermetic Scholars came into play.

Eva knocked on the door to a closed room a couple of times which earned her a shout in response saying, “One moment, please!” A series of crashes, shattering glasses, and knocking over other objects then ensued before the door swung open to reveal the man responsible for all those noises and an incredibly messy room behind him. “Ah, Eva! Long time no see!”

The man behind the door was none other than Manoel, the supposedly badass dragon guy that Eva told Ryouta and the others about before.

And he was an incredibly mixed bag when it came to his looks.

He was incredibly handsome in the traditional way and looked like a borderline bodybuilder. Tall, chiseled jawline, short and brown hair, bright and blue eyes—he looked like the epitome of masculinity almost. Only, he also wore very, very large glasses that looked too big for his face, wore loose, baggy clothes covered with burn marks, stains, and hole, and had dark freckles across his cheeks and nose. There was also the fact that he had huge, draconic wings behind his back, a reptilian tail that wagged behind him like a dog’s would, and a couple of horns stick out from his head. Then, similar to both Eva and Nell, he had patches of scales spread across his body. Most of his were concentrated on his forearms and calves, though.

Then there was his face.

While he might have looked masculine and a bit nerdy, it was impossible for him to make an expression that didn’t look like it belonged on a playful puppy dog. He had the body of an Olympian but the outgoing personality of a harmless puppy.

He was incredibly popular with all of the women, and most of the men, belonging to the Hermetic Scholars for those reasons. That included Eva. But, while most loved him because of his looks and personality, Eva enjoyed his company for an entirely platonic reason: mutual scientific interests.

“Manoel… I saw you like, three hours ago,” Eva said with a sigh.

“That’s like forever ago!” Manoel replied. “What brings you here, anyways?”

“The errand you sent me on.”

“Ah. What would that be?”

“You don’t even remember?!”

“I remember you telling me about it just now!”

Eva sighed again and pushed the bags full of materials into Manoel’s arms. “I swear you have early dementia or something.”

“The doctors say I’m all fine! Though, I will admit. They were surprised that I couldn’t remember how I actually got to their office.”

“Are you sure you don’t need new doctors?”

“Hmm. Maybe.” Manoel looked into the bags and lit up with excitement once he saw what was in them. “Ah! Right! I wanted these! But… I can’t remember why. Eva, what was I working on when I asked you to get these?”

“A potion that reverses an individual’s gravity.”

“Oh. That sounds incredibly dangerous and is almost guaranteed to result in our deaths. Exciting! Want to be my test subject?”

And that was why the two got along so well. “You know it!”

“Also, I heard talk about some sort of… tub, with tentacles in it? What is the point of that?”

“Keep your purity and don’t question it, Manoel.”

“Oh. Alright.”

Ace_Arriande

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